THE PANTRY MOUSE 39 



from which it spread long ago to Japan, whence 

 we have lately derived the specimens now com- 

 monly sold in the animal-stores of our cities 

 under the name of dancing or waltzing mice. 

 They are small in size, pied black and white 

 in a great variety of patterns, and are ex- 

 tremely agile and amusing. Their distinguish- 

 ing peculiarity, however, is their constant 

 whirling about, so that a lot of them together 

 seem like a company of dancers waltzing busily 

 to some music unheard by us. 



The origin and extraordinary behavior of 

 this astonishing race of mice has been the sub- 

 ject of much study, which has been summed up 

 and extensively added to by Prof. Robert M. 

 Yerkes of Harvard University in a book en- 

 titled The Dancing Mouse, a Study in Animal 

 Behavior (New York, 1907). He regards it as 

 highly probable that the Chinese took advan- 

 tage of some deviation in captive mice from the 

 usual form to develop a special race by means 

 of careful and patient natural selection. "The 

 dancing tendency is such in nature as to unfit 

 an individual for the usual conditions of mouse 

 existence, hence, in all probability, human care 



