DORMOUSE.
The Dormouse is nocturnal in its habits. During the day it sleeps in its nest or in some snug retreat, and at night comes forth in search of its food, which consists of nuts, acorns, seeds, berries, and the buds of trees and shrubs. It is particularly fond of the nuts of the common hazel, whence its specific name, and the name of “Haselmaus,” which it bears in Germany; these nuts it is said to pierce and empty without plucking them or taking them out of their cups. The Dormouse lives in small societies in thickets and hedgerows, where it is as active in its way amongst the bushes and undergrowth as its cousin the Squirrel upon the larger trees. Among the small twigs and branches of the shrubs and small trees the Dormice climb with wonderful adroitness, often, indeed, hanging by their hind feet from a twig in order to reach and operate on a fruit or a nut which is otherwise inaccessible, and running along the lower surface of a branch with the activity and certainty of a Monkey. Detached articles of food are held up to the mouth by the fore paws, after the fashion of a Squirrel. Towards the winter the Dormouse becomes exceedingly fat, and having collected a small store of food, makes for itself a little globular nest, composed of small twigs, leaves, pine-needles, moss, and grass, and within this, coiled up into a ball, passes into a torpid state.
Nevertheless, the winter sleep is not wholly uninterrupted; on mild days the Dormouse wakes up for a time and takes a little of its stored-up food. The female produces usually about four young, in the spring according to Professor Bell, in August according to Brehm; but the former writer thinks that in some cases two broods are produced in the year, as he has received from the same locality in September a half-grown Dormouse and three very young ones, evidently not more than a fortnight or three weeks old.
Of the other common European species, the LOIR (Myoxus glis) is found only in southern regions, its range extending from Spain to Southern Russia, and passing into the neighbouring parts of Asia. It is considerably larger than the Dormouse, measuring rather more than six inches in length, and has a bushy tail, in which the hairs are arranged in two rows, as in that of the Squirrel. The habits of this species are like those of the Dormouse. Fruit constitutes a portion of its diet, and it is said also to destroy and devour small birds and other animals. The Loir is a very voracious feeder, and becomes exceedingly fat in the autumn. By the ancient Roman epicures it was regarded as a dainty morsel, and they spared no pains to fatten it for the table. It sleeps during the day, and hibernates in some hole in a tree or in the ground, and the nest is formed in the former situation. The female usually produces about six young.
GARDEN DORMOUSE.
The GARDEN DORMOUSE, or LEROT of the French (Myoxus nitela), is common all over the southern and western parts of the Continent, extending northwards through Germany into the Baltic provinces of Russia. It is a little smaller than the preceding species, which, however, it resembles in its general habits; but it dwells commonly in gardens, and feeds on fruits, often doing much damage to the choicer varieties. It is a lighter and more active animal than the Loir, and is said to be even more predaceous in its habits. The female produces from four to six young, sometimes in a beautifully-made nest of her own, sometimes in the deserted or usurped nest of a Blackbird or Thrush, or in that of a Squirrel.
FAMILY VI.—LOPHIOMYIDÆ.
The importance of an animal in the zoological system by no means depends either upon its size or on its abundance in the world; its rank in the classification is decided solely by peculiarities of organisation which distinguish it more or less from its fellows; and in many cases the creatures which are regarded with the most interest by the naturalist are those which seem most to withdraw themselves from general observation. A single genus, perhaps containing only one or two species, may, by a singular combination of characters, be so completely isolated from all the recognised allied groups that it cannot be placed in any of them, and accordingly a distinct family, possibly even an order, has to be established for its reception. Sometimes subsequent discoveries add to the number of species forming the group thus set up, and in this way the prescience of its founder is confirmed. Sometimes the group remains in its original condition, leaving us, according to circumstances, to regard the anomalous creatures of which it is composed either as a special development of their general type, or as the residue of a group which may have presented a greater variety of forms at some past period of the earth’s history.
