634 MURID^— MUS 



THE HOUSE MOUSE. 



MUS MUSCULUS, Linnaeus. 



1758. [Mus] MUSCULUS, C. Linnasus, Syst. Nat., I, loth ed., 62 ; described from 



Upsala, Sweden ; of most subsequent authors. 

 1772. Mus DOMESTicus, J. Rutty, An Essay towards a Nat. Hist, of the County of 



Dublin, i., 281. 

 1801. M[us] m[usculus] albus, flavus, maculatus, and nicer ; J. Bechstein, 



Gemein. Natur^esch. Deutschlands, ed. 2, i., 955 ; described from Thuringen, 



Germany. 

 1827. [Mus MUSCULUS] striatus, albicans, and nivens, Billberg, Syn. Fauna 



Scand., 6 ; described from Skane, Sweden. 

 1867. [Mus MUSCULUS] HELVOLUS, VARius, and cinereo-maculatus, L. Fitzinger, 



Sitzungsber. kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien., math.-nat. CI., Ivi., Abt. i., 70 ; helvolus, 



described from Hungary, varius and cinereo-maculatus from Europe. 

 1869. Mus POSCHIAVINUS, V. Fatio, Faun. Vert. Suisse, i., 207 ; described from 



Poschiavo, Grisons, Switzerland ; as sub-species, Trouessart. 

 1872. Mus MUSCULUS, van FLAVESCENS, Fischer, Zool. Garten, xiii., 223 ; described 



from Berlin, Germany. 

 1907. Mus NUDOPLICATUS, Campbell, Zoologist, I ; described from living specimens 



received from Australia. 

 1912. Mus MUSCULUS MUSCULUS, G. S. Miller, Catalogue Mamm. West Europe,i7i. 



Die Hausmaus of the Germans ; la souris of the French. 



The synonymy given above has reference only to the House Mouse 

 in Europe ; many other names, based upon material collected in the 

 East or in America, have been applied to this animal, but it is not 

 necessary to deal with them here. 



The House Mouse is "Mus domesttcus" in Albertus Magnus {de 

 Anint., xxii., fol. 182), Gesner {de Quad., 1551), Jonston {Quad., 115, 

 t. 66, 1657), and Merrett {Pinax, 167, 1667); "Mus domesttcus minor" 

 in Aldrovandus {Digit., ^xy"); "Mus domesticus vulgaris seu minor" m 

 Sibbald {Scot., 12, 1684) and Ray {Syn. Quad., 218, 1693); "Mus 

 minor" in Klein {Quad, disp., 57) ; it is " Sorex domesticus" mQ\xa.x\&tox\. 

 {Exercit., 25, 1677), and "Sorex" in Brisson {Reg. Quad., 1762, 119), 

 and Gronovius {Zoophy., i, 4, n. 19). 



Terminology : — Variants of the word "' mouse " (derived from the 

 Sanskrit mils and the Greek f).\ii) are common to all the Teutonic and 

 Indo-Germanic languages, and were used, like the Latin sorex and the 

 Celtic luch, indiscriminately for all small, mouse-like rodents and 

 insectivores. The House Mouse being the most familiar of such 

 creatures, the word was at an early date specially applied to this species, 

 without, however, losing its more general significance. The earliest 

 instances of such special usage of" mus" and " mys" in English, cited in 

 the N.E. Dictionary, are in King ^Elfred, Boeth., xvi., 2 (about 888), and 



