House Mouse 



Mice are notorious for their versatility in selecting their rest- 

 ing places, empty coffee pots and bottles being often used by 

 them in this manner. Almost anything in fact that has an entrance 

 smaller than the cavity inside. 



Once exploring the cellar of an old farmhouse I came across 

 something made of tin, which I was told was an old-fashioned 

 sausage filler. It was bottle-shaped and open at both ends, and 

 into the larger one was thrust a piece of wood which just 

 fitted it. The remaining space was occupied by a mouse's nest 

 of rags and scraps of paper, the funnel-shaped opening serving 

 as an entrance, through which the mother mouse had probably 

 come and gone hundreds of times in ministering to the needs 

 of her family. The nest was abandoned when I found it, but 

 if any one had chanced to pick it up when the little lodgers 

 were at home and attempted to put it to its legitimate use he 

 would very probably have been a good deal surprised at the 

 result. 



In most old houses there are mice living in the walls 

 between the wainscoting and the plaster, their runways usually 

 permitting them to go literally all over the house in compara- 

 tive safety. On stormy winter nights particularly they may be 

 heard scurrying excitedly about from place to place with no 

 apparent cause. 



Too often they penetrate to those forbidden parts of the 

 house where food is kept and make themselves decidedly 

 troublesome, until their fate in the guise of pussy, or the trap, 

 overtakes them. 



But it is my opinion that in cold weather at least most 

 of them live almost wholly upon insect food, flies, spiders, 

 wasps and the like, that have packed themselves away snugly 

 for the winter in secret crannies between the boards, sometimes 

 hundreds of them closely huddled together. 



Norway Rat 

 Mus norvegicus Erxleben 

 Called also Common Rat, Brown Rat. 



Length. 1 8 inches. 



Description. Heavily built with thick head and moderate ears, 

 tail medium, always shorter than the head and body. 



142 



