The GARDEN DORMOUSE, or LEROT of the French (_Myoxus nitela_), is common all over the southern and western parts of the Continent, extending northwards through Germany into the Baltic provinces of Russia. It is a little smaller than the preceding species, which, however, it resembles in its general habits; but it dwells commonly in gardens, and feeds on fruits, often doing much damage to the choicer varieties. It is a lighter and more active animal than the Loir, and is said to be even more predaceous in its habits. The female produces from four to six young, sometimes in a beautifully-made nest of her own, sometimes in the deserted or usurped nest of a Blackbird or Thrush, or in that of a Squirrel. FAMILY VI.--LOPHIOMYIDÆ. The importance of an animal in the zoological system by no means depends either upon its size or on its abundance in the world; its rank in the classification is decided solely by peculiarities of organisation which distinguish it more or less from its fellows; and in many cases the creatures which are regarded with the most interest by the naturalist are those which seem most to withdraw themselves from general observation. A single genus, perhaps containing only one or two species, may, by a singular combination of characters, be so completely isolated from all the recognised allied groups that it cannot be placed in any of them, and accordingly a distinct family, possibly even an order, has to be established for its reception. Sometimes subsequent discoveries add to the number of species forming the group thus set up, and in this way the prescience of its founder is confirmed. Sometimes the group remains in its original condition, leaving us, according to circumstances, to regard the anomalous creatures of which it is composed either as a special development of their general type, or as the residue of a group which may have presented a greater variety of forms at some past period of the earth’s history. [Illustration: SKULL OF LOPHIOMYS.]