THE HOUSE MOUSE 655 
very voluble canary, sometimes loud and piercing, and sometimes 
‘dying away into the softest of cadences. Mr Coward (7x “27.) 
describes one which he heard in June 1912 as sounding like a 
weak-voiced canary; its notes were sung with great rapidity, 
almost in a trill, and its compass was thought to embrace half 
a dozen notes or more, of which the higher ones were decidedly 
sweet. Mr Sidebotham described one which he heard in an 
hotel at Mentone in 1877,1 whose song was not unlike that of 
canaries in many of its trills, but had more variety, some of its 
lower notes being much more like those of the bullfinch. 
Moreover it had a sort of double song, an air consisting of 
loud and full, though low, notes, and a quite subdued accom- 
paniment ; so striking was this that some, when hearing the 
mouse for the first time, attributed the song to two singers. 
A young mouse of normal appearance kept by Prof. Liebe 
appears to have been the most accomplished vocalist hitherto 
described; its voice ranged through two octaves, the notes 
partly resembling the high tones of the lark, partly the long- 
drawn, flute-like tones of the nightingale, and partly the deep, 
liquid trilling of the canary, and it distinguished itself by its 
beautiful cadences. Although occasionally pleasing or even 
beautiful, the melody emitted by mice is said to lack any 
definite or strophic character. The mice have no sense of 
time, and Mr English says that the effect of a number of them 
singing in chorus, but out of time, is ludicrous. 
A “singing mouse” may give vent to its song in all sorts 
of positions and when engaged in all sorts of actions, as when 
sitting, cleaning itself, climbing or descending, running or 
eating. In some cases the throat has been observed to vibrate 
during the song, and the snout has been held in the air, and 
extended like that of a dog when howling. Mr Romanes found 
the song to be evoked by two opposite conditions—when 
undisturbed, his mice were quiet during the day and began to 
sing at night, but when alarmed, by handling or otherwise, 
whether during the day or night, they were sure to sing 
vigorously; these two songs of contentment or fear respectively 
1 Mr Coward tells us that his father heard a singing mouse in a room of an 
hotel at Mentone about 1877; possibly this was the individual described by 
Mr Sidebotham. 
