46 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 
came to my mind. I was satisfied as to the ‘singing 
mouse’ being a reality. 
‘“‘The next appearance of our little singer was a 
night or so after the sink episode, when in the pantry, 
I and another saw it under a shelf, and it did not 
show much fear at our presence. It is not unlike 
other gray mice, only in the song it sings. This even- 
ing it was heard in the pantry.”’ 
Many other instances might be quoted, some 
from writings more than a century old. Dr. 
Elliott Coues wrote an extensive article about 
these singing mice several years ago in The 
American Naturalist. His conclusion was that 
the sound was due to an asthmatic affection of 
the throat and vocal organs. An interesting 
narrative of various exhibitions of this faculty 
is also included in Dr. Merriam’s admirable 
book on the mammals of the Adirondacks 
(Trans. Linnaean Soc. of N. Y., Vol. II.); and 
in Vol. V. of The American Naturalist, the late 
Rev. Samuel Lockwood gave a most pleasing 
history of a white-footed (wild) mouse which 
was kept in a cage, and was a persistent and 
prolonged singer, having two or more regular 
tunes, the music of which he gives. The sim- 
ilar performance of a captive house-mouse is 
