Jt 
WILD MICE. 9 
If you take the o and the e out of “mouse,” you have 
left mus, which is the Latin word for mouse; but instead 
of saying “mousey,” a Roman girl would have said muscu- 
dus. Put the two together, and you have Jlus musculus, 
the name we write when we want every person, whether he 
understands our language or not, to know that we mean the 
common house-mouse, for all the world is supposed to know 
something of Latin. This little plague was originally a na- 
tive of some Eastern country, but has now spread all over 
the world, forgetting where he really does belong. Some- 
times, in this country, he forsakes the houses and takes up a 
wild life in the woods. | 
Coming now to our true field- mice, there is first one — 
which, to distinguish it from Old World kinds, is called in 
the books by Greek words which mean the “ white-footed 
Western mouse” — LHesperomys leucopus—a very good 
name. <A second sort is generally found in meadows 
through which brooks wander; and its Latin name, Avvw- 
cola riparius, just tells the whole story in two words; 
it is the “meadow-mouse.” The third and last sort of 
wild mouse in Eastern America was first noticed near 
Hudson’s Bay, and, being a great jumper, received the 
name of the “Hudsonian jumping-mouse ”—Jaculus hud- 
SONLUS. 
