THE HOUSE MOUSE 657 



were less interrupted ; the rhythm was clearly due to respira- 

 tion. Experiment and subsequent autopsy showed the song 

 of this mouse to be due to an inflamed condition of the 

 narial passages. Mr Slater, however, points out that his 

 mouse was not short-lived, and that it begat a numerous 

 progeny; while Herr Struck mentions that a singing mouse 

 lived seven months, and another for more than nine months 

 in captivity. 



"Singing mice" of other species are known also; Landois 

 mentions such among Field Mice,^ Grass Mice, and Shrews. 

 The Rev. S. F. Lockwood described a musical Hesperomys 

 which had two chief songs, these being given in the description 

 in musical notation ; this case has been noticed by Darwin in 

 The Descent of Man. 



Reviewing all the facts relating to " singing mice " with 

 which we are acquainted, we are inclined to think that in all 

 cases the song is produced by a derangement of one or other 

 of the respiratory organs. We are aware of no case in which 

 a "singing mouse" has been proved to be healthy in this 

 respect, and the few cases in which post-mortem examinations 

 have been made have always revealed traces of inflammation. 

 Sometimes the disorder is purely of an individual kind, but 

 at others it appears to be contagious, and to affect young and 

 old alike. In some cases the disease terminates in early death ; 

 while in others it seems to be a milder but chronic disorder, 

 which apparently does not greatly diminish the vitality of 

 the mouse or its power of reproducing its kind. That 

 mice are capable of imitating song-birds, we disbelieve : many 

 singing mice are recorded from houses where there have been 

 no birds ; and as Lataste points out, the shops of those dealers 

 who store tame mice and song-birds together in large numbers, 

 would have long ere this provided clear proof of such a 

 remarkable faculty if such in fact existed.^ 



' See also p. 514 above. 



^ The following is the list of literature consulted in preparing the above account 

 of "singing mice" :— E. Newman, Zoologist, 1843, 288 ; J. Collins, ibid., 1849, 2474 ; 

 J. Farr, ibid., 1857, 5591 ; H. Fry and E. Newman, ibid., 1865, 9432 ; Bampfield in 

 ^ooA, Illustrated Nat Hist., i86o, 558; Brehm, Thierleben, ii., 132; Hugo, Proc. 

 Verb. Sac. Zool. France, ii., 1877, 87 ; Bordier, La Nature, 1876, 415, and 1877, 

 133; Brierre, Fr. Soc. dAcclim., 1877, and Nature, xvi., 1877, 558; H. H. Slater, 



