368 MUSCARDINID^— MUSCARDINUS 



tory, and the torpid mice may also be found in bird-boxes, and 

 in deserted nests of birds ; ^ Mr F. W. Frohawk knew of one in 

 mid-winter placed in an exposed alder bush. No doubt such 

 rashness or remissness in providing for hibernation is severely 

 punished in frosty weather. 



Hibernation is profound. The animal ceases to breathe/ 

 and becomes so cold and rigid that it can be rolled like a ball 

 across a table.^ A mild day may call it back into transient 

 life/ and it will then seize the opportunity to enjoy a meaP 

 before again relapsing into slumber. But, with interruptions, 

 its sleep lasts* until some day in April. By the latter 

 month it has lost much of its fat, and it then completely 

 awakes and enters upon the habits usual to an active state 

 of being. 



A hibernating dormouse can always be aroused, and its 

 complete awakening requires about twenty minutes. When 

 again left alone, however, it soon relapses into lethargy ; but 

 sometimes the disturbance to its system is fatal, especially if 

 the change be too rapid, as when heat is too suddenly applied 

 to it. During the few days just before and after hibernation, 

 it is in a constant state of transformation from complete 

 torpidity^ to the most lively activity; and if kept warm in 

 captivity this uncertain state can be much prolonged even in 

 winter. But whenever it falls asleep, even in summer, its 

 temperature drops and it feels cold to the touch. Mr Forrest ' 

 found the temperature of summer somnolence only 80° F., 

 as against 98° F.^ during activity. 



The fate of the last litter of young is an interesting point 

 in the animal's economy ; newly born litters may be found 



• Meade-Waldo, MS.; Millais. 



2 As observed by Lazare Spallanzani in 1807 (ii., 216-221 and 222-236) for this 

 species and others. 



^ Douglas English, Some Smaller British Mammals, undated, 78. 



* Sth December, dormice active (Steele Elliott, Journ. Birmingham Nat. Hist, and 

 Phil. Soc, 1896— unpaged reprint) ; any found in an active state during winter are 

 instances of spasmodic awakening. 



'■> Hence it may defecate during hibernation (Adams). 



^ One slept continuously for six months and twenty-three days ; another, with one 

 interruption only, for six months and nineteen days (Rabus, op. cit. supra, p. 361). 



' Gordon Dalgliesh took one "in a complete state of torpor" {Zoologist, 1907, 

 299-300) on 9th May 1907. 8 ]^g^ 



9 92°-94° F.— R. I. Pocock, Encyc. Brit, iith ed., art. " Hibernation," 442. 



