COMMON MOUSE.—Mus Miseculus. (Brown, White, and Pied varieties.) 
Like the rat, it frequents both town and country, doing an infinity of damage in the 
former, but comparatively little harm in the latter. In the country it attaches itself 
mostly to farmyards, where it gains access to the ricks, and when once firmly established, 
is not so easily dislodged as its larger relative the rat. However, if the rick be kept 
under cover, the Mice cannot make any lengthened stay, for the cover keeps off the 
rain, on which they chiefly depend for drink, and they are then obliged to leave the 
stack in search of water. If the rick be placed on staddles, it will be then safe from 
these little pests. 
In the town they are not so objectionable as in the country, for they can only annoy 
the human inhabitants, and cannot inflict real damage upon them. They are bold little 
creatures in their way, although easily startled ; and, if permitted to carry out their noisy 
sports undisturbed, run about an inhabited room with perfect nonchalance. The w alls 
of many of the college rooms at Oxford are papered over canvas, and the Mice run 
scuffing and squeaking between the canvas and the plaster as if they were the legitimate 
owners of the place, and the tenants were only located there in order to cater for their 
benefit. Many a wall is riddled with holes that have been made by the irritated oceu- 
pants making furious lunges with a toasting-fork—always unsucce ssful, by the way—at 
the noisy little creatures as they scurry about behind the paper. 
They are odd little animals, and full of the quaintest gamesomeness, as may be seen 
by any one who will only sit quite still and watch them as they run about a room which 
they specially affect. They are to the full as inquisitive as cats, and will examine any 
new piece of furniture with great curiosity. 
Mice are very easily tamed, and, as far as my own experience goes, the common brown 
Mouse is more readily brought under subjection, and more docile, than the white or albino 
variety. I have kept many a set of Mice, brown, white, and mottled, and have always 
found them to be very susceptible of kindness. To tame a young brown Mouse is 
an easy task; but it must be remembered that, as all Mice are very cleanly animals, 
the strictest care is needful to rid their cage of all impurity. Their bedding should 
be constantly changed, and the false floor of their cage should be double, so that, while 
