Prairie Deermouse 501 



I procured a light and found it to be a mouse! He had filled 

 an overshoe from a basket of popcorn which had been popped 

 and placed in the closet in the morning. Whether this rare 

 collection of food inspired him with song, I know not, but I 

 had not the heart to disturb his corn, hoping to hear from him 

 again. Last night his song renewed. I approached him with 

 a subduced light and with great caution, and had the pleasure 

 of seeing him sitting among his corn singing his beautiful solo. 

 I observed him without interruption for ten minutes, not over 

 four feet from him. His song was not a chirp, but a continuous 

 song of musical tone, a kind o^ to-iL'it-to-ifce-woo-woo-wee-woOy 

 quite varied in pitch. While I observed him I took for granted 

 that he was a common House-mouse {Mus musculus), but 

 when he sprang from the shoe to make his escape, he appeared 

 Hke a Prairie-mouse [Peromyscus baircli], a species I had 

 not, however, observed in-doors. I have thus far failed 

 to secure this little rodent musician, but I shall continue to do 

 all I can in the way of popcorn to entertain him, and if his 

 marvellous voice gives him the pre-eminence in mousedom 

 which he deserves, by the aid of natural selection, I shall pres- 

 ently have a chorus of Mice."^ 



Before accepting all musical Mice as artists inspired to 

 flights in the musical art, by a combination of talent, aesthetic 

 impulse, and holy joy, we should remember that not a few 

 cases have been explained away as mere outcries from con- 

 tinued pain, and in some cases from diseased or defective 

 breathing apparatus. 



Again I must refer to Kennicott, who knew this Mouse m.\ting 

 well and studied it minutely — captive and free. The species 

 pairs. "In spring," he says,^ "I have always found the old 

 male living with the female and young; but during the summer 

 I have sometimes observed the male leading a solitary life, and 

 the females and young in burrows by themselves." 



**Not having on the prairies the shelter found by its bur- 

 timber-loving cousins, in old stumps and trees, this species 



' See also Am. Nat., 1889, p. 481. * Loc. cil. 



ROWS 



