Marvels of the Universe 783 
reported to frequent the top- 
most boughs of the tallest trees, 
in which it constructs amid the 
terminal twigs a_ structure 
closely resembling from below 
the nest of a bird, and requiring 
some discrimination to recog- 
nize as the abode of a mammal. 
This nest, which is beautifully 
constructed of twigs and leaves 
and lined with hair, is used 
both as a place of repose for 
the parents and as a cradle for 
the young. Some of the other 
species, such as  Coquerel’s 
mouse-lemur, make nests of as 
much as a foot and a half in 
diameter, which appear to be 
chiefly used as places of repose 
for the adults during the heat 
of the day, or throughout the 
season of heat and drought, 
when several of these lemurs 
become completely torpid, al- 
though there can be little doubt 
that in most cases, at any rate, 
these or similar nests are like- 
wise utilized for nursing pur- 
poses. 
Much better known in this THE NEST OF THE WATER-VOLE. 
R Like many animals whose new-born young are perfectly helpless, the Water-Voles 
country is the nest or “ drey’ 
of the squirrel, which is a mother’s fur. But, unlike the nest of a bird, it serves as a permanent abiding-place 
for the parents. 
make a chamber at the end of a long burrow, usually lined with down from the 
well-built structure of leaves, 
moss, and fibres, carefully interlaced, and placed either in the fork of a tree or in a hole in the 
stem or branches. It is ready for the reception of the three or four blind and naked “ squirrelets ” 
by June; and, when constructed in a tree-fork, is made in such close accordance with its 
surroundings as to be as difficult to detect from below as is the nest of a chaffinch when similarly 
situated. 
The fact that the dormouse constructs two different nests—the one for the use of the parents 
themselves during the long winter sleep, and the other for the reception and nurture of the young in 
summer—suggests that the same thing may occur in the case of the mouse-lemurs ; and it is, at any 
rate, interesting to note that both dormice and mouse-lemurs accumulate a large store of fat at the 
root of their tails to be used as a food-supply during the long period of torpor. The winter nest 
of the dormouse is a globular structure of twigs, leaves, moss, and grass, generally placed in low 
bushes, but sometimes in gorse, and furnished with a small supply of food. At times small colonies 
of these nests, to the number of a dozen or so, are constructed within a very limitedarea. The 
summer nest for the three or four helpless young is practically similar in character to the winter one, 
but appears to be always built at a height of a yard or so above the ground, whereas the latter may 
be situated either on or in the ground. 
