25 

 A WORD ABOUT MICE. 



BY O. S. ROUND, ESQ. 



Our lady readers will not, I fear, think this a very pretty subject, and 

 some, and perhaps not a few, will associate it in their minds with some 

 degree of nervous terror; but I must say that I think, however common 

 this feeling may be, it arises and is perpetuated in great error, which a 

 very little reflection, and a more intimate knowledge of the poor little 

 object of it, will immediately dispel. Only consider your bulk in proportion 

 to a Mouse; it is too ridiculous an idea to admit of a comparison. It 

 may be said so is a wasp; but even a noxious insect seldom attacks, and 

 a Mouse never; nay, it is the emblem of timidity, and did we but reflect 

 upon the real terror which we inspire, and how their little hearts beat at 

 the sight of, to them, so really monstrous an animal as ourselves, we 

 should directly see the utter irrationality of our feeling. I believe that 

 nurses and ignorant people, with whom children are necessarily brought 

 much in contact, originate and foster this mistake, but I am sure it needs 

 but little reasoning to shew how great a one it is. Only look calmly at 

 one of these little creatures, as he steals forth warily from his hole to pick 

 up a crumb which we may chance to have dropped, observe his elegant 

 shape and proportions, the gentle curve of his back, his delicate legs and 

 ears, his bright eyes, and agility and grace of movement, and you cannot 

 fail to be struck by them. Then regard him as a beautiful work of the 

 Creator; consider that his conformation is in all respects, as far as natural 

 wants and qualifications are concerned, the same as our own, only that in 

 agility and in natural grace he is far our superior; indeed it is, like all 

 God's works, beautiful in its adaptation to its wants and necessities to the 

 place it is destined to fill in the scale of creation. 



' Upon the question of the necessity that exists, or is thought to exist, 

 for their destruction, I will not enter. They have many enemies, the 

 cat, above all, being so common a domestic animal as to insure the supply 

 being equal to the demand, and being always sufficient to scare them from 

 intrusiveness, if she does not make them her prey; but this is a part of 

 that wonderful scheme which we cannot fathom. In our country there are 

 six distinct species — the Common Mouse, or Mus domesticus, the Long- 

 tailed Field Mouse, or Mus campestris, the Short-tailed Field Mouse, or 

 Mus prateiisis, the Mower's Mouse, {Mus inessorius,) and the two Shrews, 

 the common one, {Sorex araneus,) and the Water Shrew, {Sorex fodiens ;) 

 besides, the following have been considered distinct species: — The Black 

 Short-tailed Field Mouse, otherwise the Black Water Vole, {Arvicola ater,) 

 the Oared Shrew, {Sorex remifer,) and the Water Vole, {Arvicola am- 



VOL. VIII. E 



