45. The want of an English name obliges me to refer to the
common genus of squirrels, the Latin 'glis', the French
'loir'; a little animal who inhabits the woods and remains
torpid in cold weather (see Plin. Hist. Natur. viii. 82;
Buffon, Hist. Naturelle tom. viii. 158; Pennant's Synopsis
of Quadrupeds p. 289). The art of rearing and fattening
great numbers of 'gliers' was practised in Roman villas as a
profitable article of rural economy (Varro, de Re Rustica,
iii. 15). The excessive demand of them for luxurious tables
was increased by the foolish prohibitions of the censors;
and it is reported that they are still esteemed in modern
Rome, and are frequently sent as presents by the Colonna
princes (see Brotier, the last editor of Pliny, tom. ii. p.
458 apud Barbou, 1779).