104 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



dweller among trees, or rather bushes, its prehensile claws 

 giving it the power to climb, even to cling, with hinder 

 feet, and at ease. Besides, it makes its nest among 

 branches, as squirrels do. As these, too, it lays up a hoard 

 of food — usually haws, hazel-nuts, and beech-nuts — and 

 eats them seated on its haunches, and held in its fore-paws 

 as by hands. It hybernates, also, as the squirrels, lying 

 torpid and clewed up in a ball throughout the winter 

 months. Yet I have known it awake in winter, even when 

 very cold. Once in January, a hedger, pleaching a hedge 

 near my house, caught a Dormouse curled up in dry grass 

 at the bottom. If sleeping, it awoke, and showed con- 

 siderable activity^ at short intervals repeating its querulous 

 cry in tiny treble. Taken home to the house, and put into 

 a box-cage, it remained awake and lively afterwards; no 

 doubt, from the indoors warmth. In very mild days of 

 winter the squirrel rouses itself, and roams abroad ; and 

 certainly the Dormouse does the same; but from its 

 smaller size and nocturnal habits it is less liable to 

 observation. 



Though the habitat of the Dormouse is usually remote 

 from the habitations of men, no animal is more easily 

 made a pet of. With slight care and training it will be- 

 come tame and familiar, even to letting it run about 

 loose ; a thing to be avoided, however, if there be felines 

 in the neighbourhood. I knew of one that went regularly 

 to bed with its owner, sleeping indifferently in a fold of 

 the counterpane, between the sheets, or coiled up under 

 the edge of the pillow. 



As a pet, many people esteem the Dormouse so much 

 that half a guinea is often given for one ungrudgingly. 

 This tells of their scarcity, for in no part of the British 

 Isles, that I know of, is it found in any great numbers. 



