﻿204 FIELD AND FOREST. 



aquarium, I found it was not there, and soon after detected the 

 sound in the wall. By the time I returned to my own room I found 

 there were serenaders there also; they continued to multiply until, as 

 I have stated above, there was not a spot on the premises where their 

 voice was not heard. Finally they sang all day, leaving their lurking 

 places within the walls, and boldly — or stupidly — coming out on pan- 

 try, china closet, and library shelves and even upon the floor, sing- 

 ing away regardless of observation. Every morning the maid would 

 find them on the carpet dead ; sometimes one or two in each room, 

 sometimes more, until finally the songs died out and the mice too. 

 We have not seen a mouse nor heard so much as a nibble for three or 

 four weeks, they seem to be entirely exterminated. 



The volume and tone of their song seemed almost identical with 

 that of a young canary, when first learning to sing, though now and 

 then rising to fuller and more varied power. 



Thinking, perhaps, these facts might be interesting to you I have 

 presumed to send them." 



Houston, March jo. Mrs. M. J. Young. 



Dear Sir: 



The article in the April number of Field and Forest p. 173, headed 

 " Hints upon Skeleton making," by M. E. B., reminds me of an ex- 

 periment I saw printed some twenty years ago and which I tried; I 

 herewith send it, as near as I can recollect. I think it was entitled, 

 "To make skeletons of small fish or other small objects." It was 

 suggested to take the object to be made a skeleton of, to a pond where 

 there are plenty of tadpoles, suspend it with waxed thread in their 

 midst, and, when the flesh commences to decompose, the tadpoles will 

 thouroughly cleanse the skeleton of every particle of flesh and fibre. 

 It can be then taken out by the threads, and be bleached. 



I tried it with a small fish, suspending it by means of threads under 

 the gills and tail to two sticks. In the course of four weeks, I had a 

 beautiful skeleton hanging in the loops. Not being a student of oste- 

 ology, however, I did not carry the experiment any farther, neither 

 can I say whether the tadpoles ate the flesh, or wether it was cleansed 

 by their swimming through the frame. 



Frankford, April 16, 1877. J- S. Johnson. 



