Quimby (1951:83) noted that gain in weight was accelerated in a brief period prior to entrance into hibernation. This relationship of rapid gain in weight to hibernation allows a person to estimate the date of hibernation. Cold weather seems to hasten hibernation, but less so than the correct physiologic condition which is foreshadowed by a rapid gain in weight. For example, Quimby's (1951:84) data reveal that mice that were moved to a heated room gained weight and hibernated in a fashion similar to those in unheated surroundings. Hamilton (1935:193) states that, "It seems necessary for the mouse to lay on a certain amount of fat before it is capable of hibernation." Hamilton (_loc. cit._) reported that 18 specimens of _Z. hudsonius_ taken [presumably in an active state] near Ithaca, New York, on November 13, were without a trace of fat.
Data that are available concerning the hibernation sites of _Z. hudsonius_ show that almost invariably these mice seek shelter in burrows beneath the surface of the ground and there construct nests of grass, leaves, or some other vegetation. Nicholson (1937:103) found a hibernating _Z. hudsonius_ on the George Reserve, Livingston County, Michigan, on October 20. The mouse was in a nest, composed of 10 to 12 damp elm leaves, in a sand bank two feet three inches vertically and three feet nine inches horizontally from the surface. On April 11, 1948, Schwartz (1951:228) found five nests (three with occupants) of _Z. hudsonius_ at Jefferson City, Cole County, Missouri. All nests were one foot beneath the surface of a pile of coal-ash, which was about three and one-half feet high and five feet in diameter. The nests were spherical, approximately four inches in diameter and consisted of dried oak leaves and bits of dried grass. Grizzell (1949:74) found two hibernating jumping mice at the Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel, Maryland, in January, 1948. The mice were in separate woodchuck dens; one mouse was 40 inches below the surface and the other was 26 inches below the surface. The mice were curled up in the center of masses of dead leaves, and thus, were well insulated against the cold. On April 29, 1944, at Ithaca, New York, Eadie (1949:307) uncovered a hibernating jumping mouse. The nest, about the size of a baseball, was compactly made of fine grasses and was 10 inches below the surface of the ground in a mound of earth that was approximately six by four feet at the base and three feet high.