THE ST KILDA HOUSE MOUSE 661 
rivals of their parents. Wild House Mice are said by some 
to be much less easily tamed than Field Mice, but others, as 
Lataste, state that they are easily tamed with care; no doubt 
much depends upon the mouse, the circumstances, and the 
experimentalist. Adams (J/S.) used to breed ‘white mice,” 
and he thought them “deficient in some way (sight, hearing, 
like white cats with blue eyes:”) he noted that when they 
produced a litter of normal grey ones, these were invariably 
more active and wild, often escaping when being handled, even 
when quite young. Similar experiences were recorded by 
Darbishire. 
With regard to longevity, Chalmers Mitchell (Zucyc?. Brit., 
11th ed., 16, 976a) says that the House Mouse may attain 
an age of five or six years; Oken (of. cz¢., 716) says that 
“one can keep them for six years, from which it follows 
that they live still longer in freedom.” We should not have 
expected such a small rodent to have attained so great an 
age, but we are aware of no other authoritative statements 
upon the subject. 
DEES eee WA OWS VOW SE: 
MUS MURALTS, Barrett-Hamilton. 
1899. MUS MURALIS, G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 81, pl. ix., 
fig. 2; type of female, No. 8.7.16.1 of British Museum collection, from St Kilda, 
Miller, Catalogue, 874. 
1905. MUS MUSCULUS MURALIS, J. G. Millais, Mammals of Great Britain, ii., 
198 ; Trouessart. 
1908. Mus MUSCULUS, H. Winge, Danmarks Pattedyr, 88 (in part). 
Distribution :—Restricted to Hirta, the only inhabited islet of the 
St Kilda! group, whence it is alone known. Here it is very abundant 
in the houses, but occurs also in the crofts, finding shelter in the walls 
and “cleits” (Eagle Clarke, Aun. Scott. Nat. Hist., 1914, 127). 
History :—Steele Elliott (Proc. Birmingham Nat. Hist. and Phil. 
Soc., 1895, 135; and Zoologist, 1895, 281) first obtained specimens of 
this mouse in May 1894; he noticed “a slight difference in its coloration 
from those found with us,” but did not describe it further. Barrett- 
Hamilton (0. czt.,and Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist. 1899, 31), working with 
1 As noted on p. 640 above, it is possible, however, that a representative of this 
species occurs on North Uist, Hebrides. 
