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THE HOUSE MOUSE 635 
in Lamb. Hom., 53 (about 1175); in the latter it is stated that “purh y* 
sweote smel of y° chese he bicherred monte mus to y" stoke.’ Derivatives 
of “sorex,” as the French sours, similarly acquired a secondary, 
restricted meaning, and came to denote the present species. In ancient 
times, as mentioned on p. 578 above, the word “ vat” also was perhaps 
used for the House Mouse in western Europe. 
The mouse of course figures in many familiar expressions of ancient 
origin ; thus, “drunk as a dreynt (= drowned) mouse” is met with 
about 1310 (Wright, Lyréc P., xxxix., iii.) and in Chaucer (W2fe's Prol., 
246); “quiet as a mouse” starts in 1599 in Porter (Angry Women, 184, 
71), and “wrecched mouses herte” occurs in Chaucer (7vozlus and 
Cresetde, iii, 736). Mouse-traps are mentioned in circa 1475—Cath. 
Angl., 245/1 (MS. addit.). 
In technical writings this species is usually the “Mouse” or 
“Common Mouse,” as in Pennant (Ariz Zool, i., 108, ed. 1776; Hest. 
Quad., ed. 3, ii., 184). ‘ Domestic Mouse” appears in Macgillivray (250). 
“ House Mouse” was apparently first used technically by Jenyns (JZaz., 
31, 1835), and is to be preferred to “Common Mouse,” generally used 
in books, since our dwellings form the chief station of the species 
in Britain, while out of doors its numbers are far inferior to those of 
the Field Mouse. 
Local names (non-Celtic):—“ Rick Mouse” and “ Barn Mouse” (the 
latter in Scotland) are names used for some outdoor mice, “larger 
and darker than the House Mouse” (Tomes in Bell, ed. 2, 300). 
(Celtic) :—In the Celtic languages it is called simply “ /uch” (Scotch 
and Irish Gaelic) or “ “ygoden” (Welsh)—these names being used with 
or without distinctive epithets for most other “ mice” as well. 
History, distribution, and status :—Although in all probability the 
House Mouse is of Asiatic origin, we possess no decisive or very clear 
evidence on this point. Its arrival in Europe must date from a very 
remote time, for the animal was well known to the ancients: it is 
definitely referred to by Aristotle (//7st. Anzm.,i., c. 2,15) and Pliny 
(Hest. Nat., viii.. c. 56); numerous references to it by Greek writers 
are quoted by Rolleston (Journ. Anat. and Phys., 1868, 47). Early 
medieval writers on natural history, as Albertus Magnus, had exact 
knowledge of it, and many references to it are of course to be found 
in our own literature ; some of these are quoted above under Terminology, 
and in the article on the Black Rat (p. 578). Donovan (xxxviii.) 
thought it native, because it is mentioned in the Leges Wallce more 
than ten centuries ago. 
It arrived in North America shortly after the first settlement of 
Europeans there, and is now distributed in all the settled parts of the 
New World; being scarce, however, in the extreme north, because it 
does not always survive the winters (Lantz, of. c77., p. 11). 
