308 
PLIlSry'S NATURAL HISTOET. [Book III. 
CHAP, 55. (37.) — THE MICE OF PONTTJS AND OP THE ALPS. 
The mice of Pontus also conceal themselves during the 
winter; but only the white ones.^* I wonder how those 
authors, who have asserted that the sense of taste in these 
animals is very acute, found out that such is the fact. The 
Alpine mice, which are the same size as badgers, also conceal 
themselves but they first carry a store of provisions into 
their retreat. Some wTiters, indeed, say that the male and 
female, lying on their backs alternately, hold in their paws a 
bundle of gnawed herbs, and, the tail of each in its turn being 
seized by the teeth of the other, in this way, they are 
dragged into their hole ; hence it is, that at this season 
their hair is found to be rubbed off their backs. There is a 
similar animal also in Egypt, ®^ which sits, in the same way, 
upon its haunches, and walks on two feet, using the fore feet 
as hands, 
CHAP. 56. HEDGEHOGS. 
Hedgehogs also lay up food for the winter ; rolling themselves 
on apples as they lie on the ground, they pierce one with their 
quills, and then take up another in the mouth, and so carry 
them into the hollows of trees. These animals also, when they 
conceal themselves in their holes, afibrd a sure sign that the 
wind is about to change from north-east to south.®"^ When they 
It is supposed that the white mouse of Pontus, mentioned also by 
Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 17, is the ermine, or else the marten ; 
but, as Cuvier remarks, Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 457, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 467, 
the ermine does not hibernate. — B. 
®5 Cuvier, uM supra, conceives that the Alpine mouse is the marmot ; 
but he remarks, that it is inferior in size to the badger. — B. 
^ Cuvier, ubi supra, conceives the Egyptian mouse to be the jerboa, 
theMus jaculus of Linnaeus; but it is much smaller than the marmot. 
Pliny, in B. x. c. 85, says, that the Egyptian mouse walks on two feet, as 
does the mouse of the Alps. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 37, and 
iElian, Anim. Nat. B. xv. c. 26, refer to the mouse of Egypt. — B. Pro- 
bably the Mus cahirinus. 
The faculty which these and other animals possess of foreseeing the 
weather and the future direction of the wind, is mentioned by Plutarch, 
and as existing especially in the hedgehog. It is also mentioned by Aris- 
totle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6; but it is not confined, as Pliny states, to 
its change in one direction only. It has been suggested by some com- 
mentators, that, by a slight alteration in the text, the statement may be 
extended to a change of the wind in either direction, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 
168.—B. 
