THEDORMOUSE.
This is a small red Mouse, with a tail like a squirrel, and is the most harmless and inoffensive of all the mouse-tribe. It is a very beautiful tame little animal, and is kept by many persons in small boxes or cages, and fed with crumbs of bread,&c.They have one singular and peculiar quality, which is that of sleeping for several weeks together, without receiving the least sustenance, and appearing all the while as if dead. You may oftentimes find them in dry banks, or in wood, laid up very warm in a nest, in the ground, made with oak-leaves, and always asleep when you discover them.