654 MURIDZ—MUS 
they do not mind being illuminated, if there is no conspicuous 
movement. This writer also found them not to mind loud 
noises or singing, provided “s,” ‘“k,” “or other sudden 
sounds” were not used. 
The little, shrill squeaks, uttered in rapid succession when 
pairing, fighting, or alarmed, constituting the normal voice of 
the House Mouse, are familiar to all. Mice are supposed by 
some to be fond of music, and the remarkable songs of “singing 
mice,” resembling as they do occasionally the trills of canaries 
and other song-birds, have caused others, as Bordier, to claim 
that mice are sometimes capable of learning to imitate singing 
birds, and even of teaching this art to subsequent pupils, 
situated in less favourable circumstances. Brehm, a sceptic 
himself, mentions that a traveller records that the inhabitants 
of Central China keep mice instead of canaries in their cages, 
and that the songs of such ‘‘birds” fill Europeans with 
astonishment. 
“Singing mice” have been heard by many in Britain, 
France, and Germany, and they have given rise to much 
literature and controversy. These mice make their appearance 
in houses, where previously the mice have possessed merely 
normal voices ; in some cases only one individual sings, but 
in others a nest or the entire colony have the power of song. 
Sometimes the song is heard only towards dusk, or in the 
night ; sometimes it is heard both by day and night; it may 
be continuous, or it may last for longer or shorter periods, 
alternating with more or less prolonged intervals of rest. In 
one case where the mouse sang both in the daytime and by 
night, a song lasted for ten minutes at the most during 
the day, but for fifteen minutes or more at night. The song 
itself is variously described, but appears to have little in 
common with the ordinary voice of a mouse. At its worst 
(in a male albino), it is a chirping, a medley of sounds, 
affording not the slightest resemblance to the clear notes of a 
canary or the deep trills of a thrush, but audible in the quiet 
of night at a distance of twenty paces (Schacht) ; or something 
between the sound of a wren and shrew, rather pleasing than 
otherwise (Slater). In other cases the listener has heard in it 
sweet thrilling notes, uttered very rapidly like the trills of a 
ewe ees Slee 
