SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 243 



almost horseshoe in shape. The tail is scaly, the rings of scales 

 being interspersed with sort hairs. 



It has twelve mammae, and produces from three to five litters 

 in the year, the young, like those of all other members of this 

 sub-family, being born blind. Young mice are, however, able to 

 shift for themselves at the end of a fortnight, and are fit to breed 

 on their own account when about four months old. The common 

 mouse is the reverse of a silent animal except when suspicious of 

 danger. Its squeaks are varied in tone, and individuals actually 

 develop singing powers. The present writer was incredulous at 

 one time as to this fact, but several years ago had his attention 

 drawn to mice that had been captured in Tunis and kept for a 

 time in confinement, and to similar instances in England. The 

 singing of these mice resembled the chirping, quavering notes of 

 a young cock canary who is beginning to experiment with his 

 voice. Mr. Lydekker states than an example of these singing 

 mice has been heard to " run up an octave and end with a 

 decided attempt at a trill. . . . An octave seemed to be 

 about its range . . . and one could distinctly see the 

 expansion of its throat and chest. Its favourite position when 

 singing was an erect one, standing on its hind feet." 



The burrowing habits, the leaps and bounds and high jumps, 

 and the omnivorous capacity of the common mouse are too 

 well known to be described in detail. 



This little Rodent is of almost universal distribution except 

 in the Arctic regions. Oceanic islands may only have been reached 

 within the last hundred years, and through the agency of man. 

 Probably the Mouse and Rat genus originated in Asia, but the 

 common mouse was one of the first of these animals to spread 

 over the greater part of the earth's surface which is habitable by 

 man. It is thought that its fossil remains have been found in 

 Pleistocene deposits and in the caves of England. It is, of course, 

 found at the present day all over Great Britain and Ireland and 

 everywhere else in the world except in the Arctic or Antarctic 

 regions, the Sahara Desert, the forest regions of Africa, and the 

 north-western parts of India. 



