The loir lives in forests and seems to shun our habitations, but the
lerot, (called sometimes the middle dormouse, at others the garden
squirrel) on the contrary, inhabits our gardens, and is sometimes to
be found in our houses; this species is likewise more numerous and more
generally diffused; and there are few gardens which are not infested
with them. They nestle in the holes of walls, climb up trees, choose
the best fruits, and devour them as they begin to ripen. Peaches seem
to be their favourite fruit, and whoever wishes to preserve them must
take pains to destroy the lerot. They likewise climb up pear, plum, and
apricot trees, and in a scarcity of fruits, they eat almonds, nuts, and
even leguminous plants. These they carry off in great quantities to
their holes, which they dig in the earth, above all, in well cultivated
gardens, where they make themselves beds of herbs, moss, and leaves.
The cold stupefies them, but they are revived by the heat; eight or
ten of them are sometimes found in one place, in a state of torpor,
all huddled together, and rolled up in the midst of their hoard of
provisions. They couple in spring and bring forth in summer. They
commonly have five or six young at a time; they are very quick of
growth, but do not engender till the second year; their flesh is not
eatable like that of the loir; they have the same disagreeable smell as
the house rat, whereas the loir has no bad smell; they never become so
fat as the latter. This animal is found in all the temperate climates
of Europe, and even in Poland and Prussia, but they do not appear to
exist in Sweden and the more northern countries.