330 THE COMMON MOUSE. 



ment," says the writer, " my prisoner continued licking his 

 fur with all the coolness imaginable, without even condescending 

 to notice the furious efforts of the cat to break his windows and 

 devour him. This experiment was frequently renewed for the 

 amusement of my friends, and invariably with the same results. 

 It must be obvious that the mouse could not be aware that the 

 glass afforded him a sufficient protection ; and it appeared to 

 me that he had no natural or instinctive dread of the cat."* 



Mr. Blyth tells me that dogs will not eat the common mouse, 

 though the cat does. 



Mr. E. G. Ballard says, that on removing a bag of malt in 

 the warehouse of the Dublin Custom-house, several mice were 

 disturbed and killed. Their bodies were left on the floor ; but 

 about four hours afterwards, no one having been in the ware- 

 house meanwhile, there were but two or three remaining, and 

 these were surrounded by several live mice. In the course of 

 another hour, not one dead or alive was to be seen. Shortly 

 afterwards, however, some of the little corpses were discovered 

 comfortably buried in the interstices between some reams of 

 paper, placed more than six feet from the ground, and others 

 were found deposited in some hides. 



Mr. Macdonald of Scalpa, in the Hebrides, whose grain had 

 suffered considerably from mice, discovered some years ago, 

 that if some stalks of wild mint (Mentha hirsuta), with the leaves 

 on, be placed along with grain, cheese, or any other articles 

 subject to their attacks, these animals will not touch it, being 

 deterred, perhaps, by the smell of the plant proving offensive 

 to them. " At the present day, the Italians place a bough of 

 the butcher's broom (Ruscus aculeatus) round their bacon and 

 cheese as a protection from mice."f 



The female mouse breeds several times in the year, and at 

 all seasons. She ordinarily produces from five to seven young 

 at a time. When a fortnight old, the young are able to leave 

 the mother entirely. 'They breed at so very early an age, that 



* Penny Magazine, No. 55. 



f Arts of the Greeks and Romans (1833), p. 349. 



