128 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



deserves, by the aid of natural selection I shall presently have a 

 chorus of mice ; in which case you shall receive their first visit. 

 — \V. O. Hiskey, Minneapolis, Minn." 



The writer has been informed of many similar cases, mak- 

 ing it certain that the musical performances described above, 

 are in no way exceptional, but showing that considerable musi- 

 cal powers are universal among Hesperomys. That the song is 

 not a voluntary expression of pleasure has been suggested -by 

 many. The most recent data in favor of the pathological nature 

 of mouse music has been offered by Mr. Davis. i 



While wandering about the house its tell-tale song gave no- 

 tice of its wanderings. " When removing it from the trap to 

 the cage, and many times afterward, it ran about a small room, 

 and the most noticeable feature on these occasions was the un- 

 varied song, it being especially loud if I caused the mouse to 

 scamper around the room several times without stopping. 

 When gnawing upon the exposed wood in the cage, when eat- 

 ing, or when disturbed in its nest, this singing was particularly 

 loud ; in fact, upon any exertion, the song was produced, vary- 

 ing in volume in proportion to the amount of exercise." 



" It was just previous to, and for some time after the birth 

 of two miserable litde young that Mus sang most continuously." 



It would be of great interest to determine by anatomical 

 examination whether the singing mice are suffering from bron- 

 chial disease. 



That the shrews have considerable musical powers was first 

 discovered by the writer under circumstances elsewhere pub- 

 lished as follows : 



•' In November, 1883, the writer lay encamped under the 

 canopy of the sky in Pine Co., Minnesota, endeavoring to es- 

 cape the chill of the frosty air by drawing the blanket close and 

 hovering nearer the camp fire. To a person alone in the woods 

 for the first time after a long interval every sound is novel and 

 more or less charged with mystery. The wind stirred the tree 

 tops and impinging boughs clattered and the trunks groaned 

 under the tortion, each tree with its own doleful note. " The 



I. Win. T. Davis. The Song of the Singing Mouse. Am. N'at- 

 uralist, /SSg, p. 481. 



