654 MURID^-MUS 



they do not mind being illuminated, if there is no conspicuous 

 movement. This writer also found them not to mind loud 

 noises or singing, provided "s," "k," "or other sudden 

 sounds " were not used. 



The little, shrill squeaks, uttered in rapid succession when 

 pairing, fighting, or alarmed, constituting the normal voice of 

 the House Mouse, are familiar to all. Mice are supposed by 

 some to be fond of music, and the remarkable songs of "singing 

 mice," resembling as they do occasionally the trills of canaries 

 and other song-birds, have caused others, as Bordier, to claim 

 that mice are sometimes capable of learning to imitate singing 

 birds, and even of teaching this art to subsequent pupils, 

 situated in less favourable circumstances. Brehm, a sceptic 

 himself, mentions that a traveller records that the inhabitants 

 of Central China keep mice instead of canaries in their cages, 

 and that the songs of such "birds" fill Europeans with 

 astonishment. 



"Singing mice" have been heard by many in Britain, 

 France, and Germany, and they have given rise to much 

 literature and controversy. These mice make their appearance 

 in houses, where previously the mice have possessed merely 

 normal voices ; in some cases only one individual sings, but 

 in others a nest or the entire colony have the power of song. 

 Sometimes the song is heard only towards dusk, or in the 

 night ; sometimes it is heard both by day and night ; it may 

 be continuous, or it may last for longer or shorter periods, 

 alternating with more or less prolonged intervals of rest. In 

 one case where the mouse sang both in the daytime and by 

 night, a song lasted for ten minutes at the most during 

 the day, but for fifteen minutes or more at night. The song 

 itself is variously described, but appears to have little in 

 common with the ordinary voice of a mouse. At its worst 

 (in a male albino), it is a chirping, a medley of sounds, 

 affording not the slightest resemblance to the clear notes of a 

 canary or the deep trills of a thrush, but audible in the quiet 

 of night at a distance of twenty paces (Schacht) ; or something 

 between the sound of a wren and shrew, rather pleasing than 

 otherwise (Slater). In other cases the Hstener has heard in it 

 sweet thrilling notes, uttered very rapidly like the trills of a 



