Herrick, Instinctive Traits of Animals. 123 



by the heated laborer during his ablutions, but some species 

 have complicated melodies at their command. 



Dr. Samuel Lockwood in the "American Naturalist" for 

 187 1 contributes a delightful chapter on the musical capacities 

 of the wood mice. From this we quote as follows: 



"A little study soon determined that the pretty creature be- 

 longs to the Vesper mice. It is known by the popular names 

 of Jumping mouse, Wood mouse and White-footed mouse. 

 Our specimen is one of the smallest of its own genus, for the 

 precise species is the one known to naturalists as Hesperomys 

 cognatus Leconte. This fact, so novel, once determined gave 

 additional zest to my purpose to make it an object of especial 

 study. 



"Our little musician had several snatches or bits of melody 

 which were often repeated. But in her repertoire were two 

 notable ones, each of which deserves to be dignified as a profes- 

 sional role. The one by far the more frequent is noted below, 

 and because it is her favorite, when running in her revolving 

 cage, it was named -The Wheel Song.' 



"The last bar of this would frequently be prolonged to two 

 or three, and she would sometimes change from c sharp to d, to 

 c natural and d, then warble on these two notes awhile and wind 

 up with a quick chirp on c sharp and d. The distinctions be- 

 tween the semi-tones was very marked and easily appreciable to 

 a good ear. I have always enjoyed the mellow little strains of 

 the song of the sparrow and the house wren. But in either case 

 it was short and apt to become monotonous from its admitting 

 almost no variation. Monotony was not chargeable to Hespie's 

 Wheel Song. With unconscious skill she would work it out in 

 wonderful variety. Instead of the first measure, she would 

 sometimes open with the second one and then follow it with the 

 first. Or she might start with the third, following with the 

 second or first, just as fancy seemed to dictate. Then she had 

 her whims as to the amount of repetition of each bar, that is to 

 say, she would double or even triplicate a measure when the 

 notion took her. In this regard, time was quite ignored. 

 Indeed, whatever may have been the Hesperomys'' canon of mus- 

 ical procedure or propriety, we could not but regard it as 

 arbitrary, or beyond our comprehension. Still, it must be ad- 



