THE HOUSE MOUSE 657 
were less interrupted; the rhythm was clearly due to respira- 
tion. Experiment and subsequent autopsy showed the song 
of this mouse to be due to an inflamed condition of the 
narial passages. Mr Slater, however, points out that his 
mouse was not short-lived, and that it begat a numerous 
progeny; while Herr Struck mentions that a singing mouse 
lived seven months, and another for more than nine months 
in captivity. 
“Singing mice” of other species are known also; Landois 
mentions such among Field Mice,’ Grass Mice, and Shrews. 
The Rev. S. F. Lockwood described a musical Hespevomys 
which had two chief songs, these being given in the description 
in musical notation; this case has been noticed by Darwin in 
The Descent of Man. 
Reviewing all the facts relating to “singing mice” with 
which we are acquainted, we are inclined to think that in all 
cases the song is produced by a derangement of one or other 
of the respiratory organs. We are aware of no case in which 
a “‘singing mouse” has been proved to be healthy in this 
respect, and the few cases in which post-mortem examinations 
have been made have always revealed traces of inflammation. 
Sometimes the disorder is purely of an individual kind, but 
at others it appears to be contagious, and to affect young and 
old alike. In some cases the disease terminates in early death ; 
while in others it seems to be a milder but chronic disorder, 
which apparently does not greatly diminish the vitality of 
the mouse or its power of reproducing its kind. That 
mice are capable of imitating song-birds, we disbelieve: many 
singing mice are recorded from houses where there have been 
no birds; and as Lataste points out, the shops of those dealers 
who store tame mice and song-birds together in large numbers, 
would have long ere this provided clear proof of such a 
remarkable faculty if such in fact existed.’ 
' See also p. 514 above. 
2 The following is the list of literature consulted in preparing the above account 
of “singing mice” :—E. Newman, Zoologist, 1843, 288 ; J. Collins, zdzd., 1849, 2474 ; 
J. Farr, zdid@., 1857, 5591 ; H. Fry and E. Newman, 7é7@., 1865, 9432; Bampfield in 
Wood, Jilustrated Nat. Hist., 1860, 558; Brehm, T/zerleben, ii., 132 ; Hugo, Proc. 
Verb. Soc. Zool. France, ii., 1877, 87 ; Bordier, La Nature, 1876, 415, and 1877, 
133; Brierre, Fr. Soc. dAcclim., 1877, and Nature, xvi., 1877, 558; H.H. Slater, 
