DORMOUSE. 
297 
caught in fall-traps, for the sake of their skins,which, 
however, are not much valued, being used for the 
lining of ladies’ cloaks. 
We ought not to dismiss this genus without no- 
ticing our common dormouse , which is a mild and 
gentle animal, living in hedges, and making its nest 
in the hollow of a low tree, where the female brings 
forth three or four young at a time. In its wild 
state it forms magazines of provisions for winter use, 
and passes the inclement season in a state of tor- 
pidity, occasionally reviving on a warm sunny day, 
when it takes a little food, and then relapses into its 
former state. The nest of the dormouse is made of 
grass, moss, and dried leaves ; it is about six inches 
in diameter, and open at the top. It would be su- 
perfluous to say more about this little creature, as its 
manners are so well known in a domestic state. 
