SKETCH OF WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE. 105 



dieted by the recorded fact that one out of a litter of common mice 

 has become a " cantatore " or " cantatrice," while the rest have re- 

 mained incapable of " favoring with a song." 



The fact is that, although singing mice are not very rare, they are 

 not common enough to have permitted any competent zoologist to note 

 their birth and parentage, observe their habits in life, and dissect them 

 after death in a series so complete as to give assurance of scientific 

 accuracy. 



I was amused on reading in a jDaragraph in Nature^ of the 25th 

 ult., that, in reply to a letter from Dr. Berdier in La Nature, affirming 

 that mice sing, " a distinguished herpetologist, M. Lataste, suggested 

 that Dr. Berdier might have made confusion with the singing of a 

 raniform batrachian, the Boinhinator igneus ; but Dr. Berdier said 

 there was no marshy ground near the room in which he had heard it, 

 and he stuck to his assertion," There certainly was no " raniform ba- 

 trachian, Bomhinator igneus^'' in the comfortable dining-room in Gower 

 Street, where I was introduced to " Nicodemus " and " The Chirper," 

 and one would suppose that the instances of mice having been seen, 

 as well as heard, singing, have been sufficiently numerous and well 

 attested to render unnecessary so extravagant an explanation as that 

 of the " distinguished herpetologist." The subject was, however, re- 

 garded as worthy of being brought before the Society d'Acclimatation 

 at its last meeting, when M. Brierre confirmed the observation of Dr. 

 Berdier, and stated that he had himself heard mice sing, though not 

 more recently than 1851-53. — Land and Water. 



SKETCH OF WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE. 



WE in the present number of the Monthly offer to our readers a 

 portrait of Mr. William Spottiswoode, F. R. S., D. C. L., LL.D., 

 President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 at its late session in Dublin. 



William Spottiswoode is the son of Andrew Spottiswoode, M. P., 

 printer to the Crown and the House of Lords, and prominent in the 

 history of printing for his earnest encouragement of every invention 

 tending to perfect that important art. The son was born in London, 

 January 11, 1825. Having studied successively at the famous public 

 schools of Eton and Harrow, winning high honors at the latter insti- 

 tution, he in 1842 entered Balliol College, University of Oxford, and 

 three years later graduated A. B. as a first-class in mathematics. He 

 had already made considerable progress in that particular branch of 

 knowledge, and in 1837 and the following years had printed for circu- 

 lation among his friends " Meditationes Analytics." He has ever since 



