There are a considerable number of animals, even in England, which hibernate. Most of these feed largely on insect food, which in winter is unobtainable in any great quantity. Consequently the hedgehog and the badger, which live largely on snails and worms, go to sleep in the famine months. So does the sleepiest of all--the DORMOUSE. This alone would show that this little rodent probably feeds on insects very largely, for if it only ate nuts and berries it could easily store these, and find a good supply also in the winter woods. It has been recently proved that dormice are insectivorous, and will eat aphides, weevils, and caterpillars. But a dormouse hibernates for so long a time that one might imagine its vitality entirely lost; it sleeps for six months at a time, and becomes almost as cold as a dead animal, and breathes very slowly and almost imperceptibly. Mr. Trevor-Battye says that if warmed and made to awaken suddenly in the winter it would die in a minute or two, its heart beating very fast, "like a clock running down." Before their hibernation dormice grow very fat. There is a large species, found in Southern Europe, which the Romans used to eat when in this fat stage. In winter dormice usually seek the nest of some small bird, and use it as a sleeping-place. They pull out and renew the lining, or add a roof themselves. Into the interior they carry a fresh supply of moss, and sleep there in great comfort. Their great enemy at this time is the weasel. There are two main groups of the dormice, divided by naturalists in reference to the structure of their stomach. The South African GRAPHIURES have short tufted tails. The hibernating habit is confined to the more northern species.
[Illustration: _Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons._
The pocket-gophers are almost entirely subterranean. Their burrowing powers are remarkable. The teeth as well as claws are used to aid them.]
This family, which includes the MICE, RATS, and VOLES, contains more than a third of the number of the whole order of Rodents. Some are arboreal, others aquatic; but most are ground-living animals and burrowers. The number of known species has been estimated at 330. Among the most marked types are the WATER-MICE of Australia and New Guinea, and of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The feet of the Australian species are webbed, though those of the Philippine form are not. The GERBILS form another group, mainly inhabitants of desert districts. They have very large eyes, soft fur, and tails of various length and form in different species. They have greatly developed hind legs, and leap like jerboas, and are found in Southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. The PHILIPPINE RATS, large and long-haired, and the TREE-MICE of Africa south of the Sahara, form other groups. A very mischievous race of rodents is represented in Europe by the HAMSTERS, and in the New World by a closely allied group, the WHITE-FOOTED MICE.