766 A SINGING HESPEROMYS. 
and during all this singing the muscles could be seen in vigorous 
action through the entire length of the abdomen. This feat would 
be impossible to a professional singer; and the nearest to it that 
I have seen was the singing of a wild mocking bird in a grove. 
For several days the wheel grated on its axle. This afforded 
Hespie great delight; and her own little warble was completely 
lost in the harsher sound. It was pretty much as it is with 
some of the modern methods of praise; as when the vocal is 
subordinated to the instrumental, a mere murmur of song, on 
which the organist comes down as with the sound of many waters. 
A drop of oil, and the sound of the friction stopped. This quite 
excited her temper; and she bit the wires of her wheel most 
viciously. A little device was hit upon which set her in good 
humor again. A strip of stout writing paper, a half inch wide, 
was pinned down in such a way that its clean cut upper edge 
pressed against the wires of the wheel, making with its revolution 
a pleasant, purring sound. It was on the principle, exactly, of 
the old-time watchman’s rattle, and the old toy known as a cricket. 
This for a while greatly delighted the capricious creature, and she 
made the wheel almost fly; at the same time, in unison with the 
whirr of the wheel, was her own soft, cheery warble. It was very 
low, yet very distinct. I remember once on a larger scale wit- 
nessing an analogous sight, when, unseen, I entered a room in 
which was a woman spinning wool, and singing at the top of her 
voice, in keeping with the loud whirring of her spinning wheel. 
Without her wheel the domestic life of little Hespie would be 
rather monotonous. Expecting to see some antics in the slipping 
line, the trick was tried of covering a part of the inside of the 
wheel with smooth sized paper. Mousie entered and started the 
wheel, and in the prettiest way jumped the smooth paper floor at 
avery: Hewolition; actually keeping the propulsion up with but a 
slight diminution of the usual speed. This was certainly a very 
pretty feat. We next shut her out by corking up the entrance. 
_ She worked desperately at the closed aperture; then in despair 
gave vent to a piercing little cry. It was surprising what ® 
strange pleasure this sound afforded me; it showed so clearly the 
difference in the timbre or quality of this sound of distress from 
that which I have called its singing. She was a good deal excited, 
and ran frantically into and out of her little bed-box, which had a 
hole at each end. Soon this tiny gust of rage passed over. She 
ates 
er 
