344 PET ANIMALS. 



WHITE MICE AND HARVEST MICE. 



THERE are few lads that have not, during some portion or other of 

 their school days, amused themselves by keeping these pretty little 

 creatures. The moderate sum for which they may be bought, and 

 the trifling expense incurred in keeping them, place them within 

 reach of almost every schoolboy's pocket ; while the constant 

 amusement they afford by their innocent antics, and the tameness 

 and docility of their nature, amply compensate for the little trouble 

 they require at his hand. So well must they be known to all our 

 young readers who possess the slightest love for natural history, that 

 a long account of them is altogether unnecessary; a few remarks, 

 therefore, on the mode of treatment, &c., is all that need be offered. 



They may be purchased at all bird-shops ; eightpence or a shilling 

 are the prices asked for a pair of young ones ; after having had a 

 litter, eighteen pence to two shillings ; the same price is also asked 

 for a doe with four or five little ones. They are exceedingly prolific ; 

 six or eight broods are frequently produced by one doe in the course 

 of a year, and from three to eight young ones at each birth. When 

 the female is about to litter, the buck is frequently separated from 

 her, and kept in another cage till the young ones are a week or ten 

 days old, lest he should devour them. Though this circumstance 

 does occasionally happen, yet it is by no means a common oc- 

 currence; if, however, he has once done it, he will be always likely 

 to repeat it. Two or three kinds of spiders are quite as hard-hearted, 

 and the wives think nothing of gobbling up their husbands, "body 

 -nd bones," if they once fairly get hold of them. 



The cages for white mice are as varied in price as they are in form, 

 material, and neatness of execution. A common one may be had 

 for a shilling, or even sixpence, and more finished ones at all inter- 

 mediate prices between that and a sovereign. The usual and most 

 convenient cage is that like the squirrel's, on a small scale ; the same 



