British Wildlife 27.3 February 2016

Through a naturalist’s eyes

A snippet that, had there been more space, would have been included in my piece about dormice in the last issue concerned the origin of their name. I had always thought that 'dormouse' was derived from the Anglo-Norman dormeus, meaning 'sleepy one', but I found that there is a case for its coming from the Old Norse dúsa – doze, hence 'dozymouse' in the Viking north of England. The two mean much the same, but what did the AngloeSaxons call it? 'Egle'. This would be much easier to type but would lead to confusion with very large raptors."

A study in pink Duck decoys: stars of the pond landscape
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