DORMOUSE

any of the 20 species of small rodents in the seven genera of the family Gliridae (order Rodentia). Six genera of dormice are distributed through Eurasia and northern Africa, and one, Graphiurus, occurs in sub-Saharan Africa. Dormice are generally squirrellike, with large eyes, soft fur, rounded ears, and well-haired, sometimes bushy, tails. Like squirrels, they are typically arboreal and sit up to eat. Unlike most squirrels, they are nocturnal. Dormice live in trees, bushes, and rock walls, and in nests of plant material. They eat fruit, nuts, birds' eggs, and some insects and small animals, and they sometimes damage orchard crops by eating only a small portion of each fruit. Dormice are proverbially regarded as extremely sleepy animals. Many do sleep for long periods. The edible and common dormice (Glis glis and Muscardinus avellanarius), for example, accumulate a large amount of fat in the fall and sleep much of the winter, rousing occasionally to eat food they have stored. Members of these two species may remain dormant from September or October to April. Dormice breed once, sometimes twice, yearly; the female bears two to nine young after about three or four weeks' gestation. The edible dormouse, largest of the dormice, is gray and attains a maximum length of about 20 cm (8 inches) excluding its 15-centimetre (6-inch) tail. Also known as the fat dormouse, it was prized as food by the ancient Romans, who raised it in special enclosures (gliraria). The common dormouse, or hazel mouse, is a small dormouse 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) long without the tail. It is tawny brown with a white throat and white toes. Other species include the garden dormouse, or lerot (Eliomys quercinus), a gray or brown dormouse with a black stripe on each side of its face; the tree dormouse (Dryomys nitedula), a small, bushy-tailed, reddish brown dormouse; the Japanese dormouse (Glirulus japonicus), a chipmunklike species with a dark stripe from head to tail; and a number of African dormice (Graphiurus), which are forest dwellers and are usually gray or brownish. The spiny dormouse (Platacanthomys lasiurus) is a rodent similar to the dormouse and lives in rocky areas in southern India. Reddish brown and 13 to 21 cm (5 to 8 inches) long without the long tail, it has flattened spines mixed in with the hairs of its back. The spiny dormouse inhabits tree hollows and feeds on plants. Its nearest living relative is the Chinese pygmy dormouse, or blind mouse (Typhlomys cinereus), a small, mouselike, gray rodent about which little is known. The affinities of these two rodents are disputed. Some authorities place them in the family Cricetidae, others in a family of their own, Platacanthomyidae. For the desert dormouse, a possible relative of the true dormice, see Selevin's mouse.