APPENDIX. 



37 



good reason, that it will be greatly to the advantage of all 

 exhibitors of mice that their specimens should compete under 

 identical conditions, and various cages are being passed in 

 review. The most vexed question is as to the desirability of a 

 dormitory, or bedroom to the cage. From the mouse's point 

 of view, a bedroom is most advantageous; from the judges' 

 and spectators', it is a nuisance, as enabling the creature to 

 hide itself from their view. This difficulty is easily solved by 

 placing a sliding shutter over the hole leading from one com- 

 partment to the other, by means of which the mouse can be 

 shut out of the inner compartment when necessary ; but though 



Fig. 9. Max) V s miow-cage for Mice. 



excellent in theory, in practice the sliding shutter often proves 

 a death-trap. The mouse is either shut out, through the care- 

 lessness of the attendants, and perishes of cold ; or it is shut in 

 and cannot get at food, thus dying of starvation ; or it is nearly 

 decapitated by a hasty hand when in transit from one compart- 

 ment to another. Various means of rendering all these mis- 

 fortunes impossible have been invented, and doubtless the show 

 cage as chosen by the Mouse Club will be as perfect as possible 

 in all details. Mr. Wild, of Oxford, has invented a " fountain " 

 food-store, applicable to any cage, which entirely obviates any 

 risk of starvation — a fate which often overtakes these little 



