CORRESP ONDENCE, 



673 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



SINGING MICE. 



To the Editors of the Popular Science MontJtly. 



READING the article in your November 

 number from " Nature " on " Singing 

 Mice" recalls my experience with one of 

 these interesting little animals : Some years 

 since, while residing at Santa Fe, New Mexi- 

 co, one of these vocal mice made its appear- 

 ance in my house. The sounds were noticed ; 

 some time before the animal was seen. As 

 with Mr. Lee's mice, there was a canary-bird | 

 in the room, and for a time the notes coming 

 from the wall were attributed to the canary. 

 At last, however, the mouse would come out ' 

 on the carpet seeking for crumbs, and there ' 

 sing. The notes were almost identical with 

 those of a canary. It would not trill so 

 long, but in pitch and tone were identical 

 — at least to an unmusical ear. The same 

 filling and throbbing in the throat seen in a 

 bird were also seen in the mouse while he 

 sang The sound was not sibilant, but 

 strictly canorous with the pitch of an ordi- 

 nary canary. After this mouse had fur- 

 nished entertainment for a month to my- 

 self and family, I found him so tame I could 

 touch him, and that he was utterly blind. 

 It was very touching to see the gentle little 

 creature turn up its cloudy, sightless eyes 

 to the candle when he was brought near to 

 it on the floor of the dining-room. Small 

 parties would- assemble in the evening to 

 hear this wonderful little vocalist without 

 frightening him. He would come out on 

 the carpet with all the confidence and 

 aplomb of an old actor, and delight his hear- 

 ers. I was afraid to keep him in confine- 

 ment for fear he would die. Our cat was 

 banished for the same reason, and we would 

 not set any traps for fear he would be caught. 

 Finally, we became so overrun that we had 

 either to commence hostiUties or abandon 

 the house. We set a trap in a cupboard in 

 the room, and alas ! poor little singing Mus 

 was the very first victim. I found, on ex- 

 amining the body, that he was exceedingly 

 old — so old as to be blind, as I remarked — 

 and his teeth were very long and yellow. 

 The lower ones had grown up above the 

 nostril. The existence of messmates or 

 anything internal I did not verify. As for 

 the theory of this accomplishment being the 

 result of pregnancy, that was eliminated by 

 the sex. I then had an idea that the sounds 

 might have been produced by the air being 

 forced through the long, overgrown gnawers, 

 they acting as a sort of string. The animal 



was a true mouse. We have here a rat 

 very little larger than a mouse, but it was 

 not one of these. It was identical with the 

 ordinary American mouse, and there was no 

 peculiarity in color or length of ears, as re- 

 marked by Lee. This was the only one I 

 ever had an opportunity of examining. The 

 Mexicans, however, say they are not uncom- 

 mon, and are superstitious about their ap- 

 pearance. My servants were greatly dis- 

 tressed and alarmed at the death of this 

 one: a coincident ill fortune in the family 

 was looked upon as having a plain and suf- 

 ficient raisoji d'etre. 



Lewis Kesnon, A. M., M. D. 



Fort Batard, New Mexico, ( 

 January 14, 1879. f 



DR. LAEDNER AND TRANSATLANTIC 

 STEAM-NAVIGATION. 



To the Editors of the Popular Science Monthly. 



In your February number. Dr. Burns 

 somewhat autocratically takes you to task 

 for stating that Dr. Lardner had declared 

 in some of his earlier lectures that steam- 

 navigation across the Atlantic was "im- 

 practicable," and he quotes, from a very 

 imperfect edition of Dr. Lardner's early lec- 

 tures on the steam-engine, a foot-note by 

 Professor Renwick, to show that it was the 

 latter and not Dr. Lardner who at that time 

 deemed the experiment impracticable. 



As usual, you are correct in your state- 

 ment, and Dr. Burns has fallen into a very 

 material error, in the first place from not 

 understanding the position of Dr. Lardner 

 as implied by your remark in the December 

 number of the journal, and from evidently 

 not having read Dr. Lardner's later and 

 fuller lectures on " The Prospects of Steam- 

 Navigation," delivered in the principal cities 

 of the United States during 1843 and 1844. 

 The best edition of these lectures is the 

 one published by Greeley and McElrath, of 

 the "Tribune," in 1846, which edition was 

 revised for publication by Dr. Lardner him- 

 self. I quote from his lecture on "The 

 Prospects of Steam-Navigation," as found 

 on page 269 of Volume I. His lecture begins 

 with this statement of the facts obtaining 

 then, as to ocean navigation, and his opin- 

 ion as to its practicability : 



" Ten years have now rolled away since 

 the project was first announced to the world, 

 to supersede the far-famed New York and 

 Liverpool packet-ships, by a magnificent 

 establishment of steam liners. . . . The' 



