name "dormitory" is also
applied to the large bedrooms with a number of beds, in schools and
similar modern institutes.

DORMOUSE (a word usually taken to be connected with Lat. _dormire_, to
sleep, with "mouse" added, cf. Germ. _Schlafratte_; it is not a
corruption of Fr. _dormeuse_; Skeat suggests a connexion with Icel.
_dar_, benumbed, cf. Eng. "doze"), the name of a small British rodent
mammal having the general appearance of a squirrel. This rodent,
_Muscardinus avellanarius_, is the sole representative of its genus, but
belongs to a family--the _Gliridae_, or _Myoxidae_--containing a small
number of Old World species. All the dormice are small rodents (although
many of them are double the size of the British species), of arboreal
habits, and for the most part of squirrel-like appearance; some of their
most distinctive features being internal. In the more typical members of
the group, forming the subfamily _Glirinae_, there are four pairs of
cheek-teeth, which are rooted and have transverse enamel-folds. As the
characters of the genera are given in the article RODENTIA it will
suffice to state that the typical genus _Glis_ is represented by the
large European edible dormouse, _G. vulgaris_ (or _G. glis_), a grey
species with black markings known in Germany as _Siebenschlafer_; the
genus ranges from continental Europe to Japan. The common dormouse
_Muscardinus avellanarius_, ranging from England to Russia and Asia, is
of the size of a mouse and mainly chestnut-coloured. The third genus is
represented by the continental _lerot_, or garden-dormouse, _Eliomys
guercinus_, which is a large parti-coloured species, with several local
forms--either species or races. Lastly, _Graphiurus_, of which the
species are also large, is solely African. In their arboreal life, and
the habit of sitting up on their hind-legs with their food grasped in
the fore-paws, dormice are like squirrels, from which they differ in
being completely nocturnal. They live either among bushes or in trees,
and make a neat nest for the reception of their young, which are born
blind. The species inhabiting cold climates construct a winter nest in
which they hibernate, waking up at times to feed on an accumulated store
of nuts and other food. Before retiring they become very fat, and at
such times the edible dormouse is a favourite article of diet on the
Continent. At the beginning of the cold season the common dormouse
retires to its nest, and curli