tion, the mouse persists in destroying foodstuffs and 

 other materials in much the same manner as do rats. 



Being of small size it gains access to many situa- 

 tions and even the seed in the canary's cage is devoured 

 by it. Of course, field mice frequently get into the 

 house also, but in cities it is invariably the house mouse 

 that one sees and hears. The house mouse nests in fur 

 garments, old shoes, stove pipes, rag bags, and in almost 

 every other sort of locality. It begins to bear when 

 three months old and has a litter of from eight to ten 

 every two or three months during the year. The nest 

 is made of soft materials, such as hair, chewed news- 

 papers and rags. 



The house mouse, I believe, is the fastest mouse in 

 the world. I once had a mouse cage with a pivoted 

 disc placed at a slight incline. The mice would run on 

 this until it revolved at a great speed. It worked in the 

 same manner as a treadmill. When I placed house 

 mice in the same cage with field mice the former 

 rotated the disc so rapidly that the field mice could 

 not keep up the pace and they were thrown off the disc 

 by centrifugal force. The house mouse iiivarial)lY ate 

 the young field mice, and later when the young were 

 finished, they would gradually kill off all of the adult 

 field mice. 



The chief characteristics of the house mouse are: 

 nose pointed; ears fairly large; tail quite long; body 

 almost slender; color above, grayish brown with long 

 black or yellowish hairs unevenly distributed; the un- 

 der side is a slaty gray. Seldom more than six inches 

 long, the tail being half the body length. 



-*H[ 132 >>-.- 



