8 The Dancing Mouse 



in South China and in Formosa. It is further stated that 

 black and white varieties which are brought from the Straite 

 are often kept by the Chinese (p. 637). 



The statements of Kishi, Mitsukuri, and Hatai which have 

 been quoted, taken in connection with the opinions expressed 

 by various European scientists who have studied the dancer, 

 make it seem highly probable that the race appeared first in 

 China, and was thence introduced into Japan, from which 

 country it has been brought to Europe and America. Accept- 

 ing for the present this conclusion with reference to the place 

 of origin of the dancer, we may now inquire, how and when 

 did this curious freak, as Professor Mitsukuri has called it, 

 come into existence? Concerning these matters there is 

 wide divergence of opinion. 



Haacke (6 p. 514), as quoted in Brehm's "Tierleben," says 

 that an animal dealer with whom he discussed the question 

 of the possible origin of the dancer maintained that it came 

 from Peru, where it nests in the full cotton capsules, arrang- 

 ing the cotton fibers in the form of a nest by running about 

 among them in small circles. Hence the name cotton mouse 

 is sometimes applied to it. Haacke himself believes, how- 

 ever, that the race originated either in China or Japan as 

 the result of systematic selectional breeding. Of this he has 

 no certainty, for he states that he failed to find any literature 

 on the "beautiful mice of China and Japan." Whether 

 Haacke' s description of the dancing mouse was published 

 elsewhere previous to its appearance in Brehm's "Tierleben" 

 I am unable to state ; I have found nothing written on the 

 subject by him before 1890. Zoth (31 p. 176) also thinks 

 that the race was developed by systematic breeding, or in other 

 words, that it is a product of the skill of the Asiatic animal 

 breeders. 



Another account of the origin of the race is that accepted 



