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THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. LI 



SINGING MICE 



In November, 1916, Mr. B. S. York, of Ann Arbor, brought 

 to me a "singing" house mouse that had been captured in his 

 home. This mouse had been heard by members of his family 

 for several weeks, especially late at night and early in the 

 morning. Arrangements were made to carry on breeding ex- 

 periments with it but it lived only two weeks. 



Singing mice have been recorded in a number of publications 

 dating back many years. In 1912 Coburn^ reported some work 

 he had done with a female singer captured in December, 1911. 

 This individual when mated with an ordinary mouse gave birth 

 to five litters (thirty-three young). None of these were singers 

 and no singers appeared in either the second or third genera- 

 tions. Two other singing mice were described by Coburn in 

 1913.2 One was caught in the home of an Italian family in 

 November, 1912, and the other was taken by a farmer in Mich- 

 igan in March, 1913. Both of these were females. 



The Ann Arbor specimen that was brought to me also proved 

 on dissection to be a female. Her song was similar to that re- 

 ported by Coburn as follows : 



The sound is best described as a rapid whole-toned trill involving the 

 of a fife or flute, but each tone ended with a slight throaty cUek. 

 In every case the song could be heard at least 15 or 20 feet 

 away. 



INfany causes have heen proposed for the presence of this 

 ability to sing such as pregnancy, a diseased condition of the 

 lungs or vocal cords, a parasitized liver, etc. There were no 

 embryos or young in the Ann Arbor specimen and Dr. George 

 R. LaRue was unable to find any parasites that could have in- 

 duced the singing. 



It has been suggested that since all of the singers captured 

 thus far have been females, this characteristic may be sex-linked 

 and due to some structural modification of the vocal apparatus. 



R. W. Hegner 



UxlVEilSITY OF MiCIllfiAX 



1 Coburn, C. A., Journ. Ammal Behavior, Vol. 2, 1912, pp. 364-366. 



2 Coburn C. A., Journ. Animal Behavior, Vol. 3, 1913, p. 388. 



