36 



FANCY MICE. 



Young mice should be looked over as soon as they get their 

 fur, which is generally in about five days after their birth, and 

 before their eyes are open, and those which are not likely to be 

 good enough for show should be at once drowned in warm 

 water. They die almost instantly, and the relief to the mother, 

 if she has a large family, is very great. Size being a first 

 desideratum in show stock, it is not well to let a doe bring 

 up more than four or five in each nest, nor should the nests 

 follow each other too quickly. The young may remain with 

 the mother until they are, as I said before, five or six weeks 

 old, when it will be possible to distinguish the sexes, and should 

 then be drafted oft in couples to separate cages. Two bucks 

 or two does will live together in perfect amity if they have 

 been brought up in the same nest ; but beware of introducing 

 strangers of the same sex to one another, for in the pitched 

 battle which will certainly ensue between bucks, and occasionally 

 between does, one or other combatant is not unlikely to lose 

 its life. 



The fecundity of mice, if left to themselves, is astounding, 

 and if a check were not placed upon it, would be overpowering 

 in the case of pet stock. Seven is perhaps the average number 

 produced by does in each litter, except in the case of fawns. 

 These charming mice, which are generally larger than any 

 other variety, often produce only one or two young at a birth, 

 and seldom reach the average attained by the other self-colours 

 and the marked mice — a fact possibly due to the inbreeding 

 which has been extensively practised in order to get good 

 colour. Whites come next to fawns in point of average size, 

 and a white cross is often introduced to impart size to a 

 strain which by long inbreeding has become very small. A 

 white cross will often, however, sjDoil a whole strain if in- 

 judiciously managed, and should, if possible, be avoided in 

 all cases where black is concerned, as it leads to the presence 

 of white hairs among the black, a defect which it is almost 

 impossible to get rid of in a strain when it has once 

 appeared. 



Small sunken eyes are a fault much abhorred of judges, 

 and no mouse whose eye is not full and protuberant should 

 be used for breeding. A careful process of selection, picking 

 out those mice which excel in size, colour, and eye, and 

 mating them together, with an occasional excursion in search 

 of fresh blood, very carefully conducted, will improve the 

 poorest strain to a remarkable degree, and it will not, I feel 

 convinced, be long before there will be good and well-known 

 strains of mice in all parts of the country, which may be 

 relied on to breed true to colour, and even to markings. Such 

 strains already exist, but are in the hands of a few fanciers 

 who have spent years in perfecting them. 



The Mouse Club are in deliberation at the present time, as to 

 the choice of a uniform show-cage. It has been decided, with 



