dis 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
i OF STATEN ISLAND. 
VOL. IX No. 2. 
The regular meeting of the Associa- 
tion was held at the residence of Dr. 
Arthur Hollick, New Brighton. 
In the absence of the president, Mr. 
George S. Humphrey was elected chair- 
man pro tem. 
The following were elected to active 
membership : 
Liewelyn 
Harbor. 
Wm. B. Grubbe, Port Richmond. 
John T. Featherstone, New Brighton. 
D, L. Bardwell, New Brighton. 
Mr. 
paper: 
W. Freeman, Mariners’ 
Wm T. Davis read the following 
THE DRUMMING HABIT OF THE WHITE- 
FOOTED, OR DEER MOUSE. 
In Country Life in America for No- 
vember, 1903, Mr. Ernest H. Baynes, of 
Stoneham, Mass., has an article on the 
White-footed Mouse. He says: ‘‘I have 
recently discovered what may prove to 
be a means of communication between 
different individuals of this species. 
Both when wild and when in captivity, 
they have a habit of drumming with one 
fore-foot, either right or left, on a dry 
leaf, the floor, or the netting in front of 
a cage; and this signal, if signal it is, 
is frequently, if not usually, answered 
at once by any other white-footed mice 
‘within hearing. They will also re- 
spond quickly to an imitation of the 
sound, made by scratching with the 
thumb-nail on a board or any other res- 
DECEMBER 12th, 1903. 
onant body While drumming, the paw 
of the mouse is half-closed, with the 
nails downward, and it vibrates with 
great rapidity.’’ 
**That the white-footed mouse is dumb 
and communicates with its species by 
drumming with its toes,’’ is announced 
as one of his newly-discovered facts in 
natural history, by Mr. Mason A. Wal- 
ton, in ‘‘ A Hermit’s Wild Friends; or 
Eighteen Years in the Woods,’’ which 
has been recently published. 
In these Proceedings for January, 
1886, this same drumming habit of the 
white-footed mouse was commented upon 
by me as follows: ‘‘What I wish to 
particularly record is a habit which I 
have never seen mentioned, a way I think 
which they have of communicating with 
one another, especially when surprised. 
This is accomplished by beating one of 
the fore-paws very rapidly on the floor 
of the cage, or the limb of a tree, pro- 
ducing a noise similar to the tearing of 
a small piece of paper.”’ 
At the meeting above mentioned, live 
specimens of the mice were shown, and 
produced, the sound with their fore- 
paws many times for ag beteft of those 
A 
present. 
x \Y 
Mr. Davis Fico Iso gS Nhe 
of the four-toed salamander, 
and 
in alcohol, 
ments : 
