MUS MUSCULUS.— Linn. 
Common Mouse. 
PLATE X C. — Male, Female, and Young. — Natural Size. 
M. Corpore fusco ; subtus ciner ascenti. 
CHARACTERS. 
Dusky gray above, cinereous beneath. 
SYNONYME3. 
Mos Musculub. Linn., 12 Ed., p. 83. 
Mouse. Pennant, Arct. Zool. vol. 1, p. 131. 
Mus Musculus. Say, Long’s Expedition, vol. 1, p. 262. 
“ “ Harlan, p. 149. 
“ “ Godnian, vol. 2, p. 84. 
DESCRIPTION. 
The Common Mouse is more generally and familiarly known than any 
other species, and therefore requires no very minute description. It is 
small in size ; head, elongated ; nose, sharp ; ears, large, erect, ovate, and 
nearly naked on both surfaces ; legs, slender ; nails, sharp, slightly hooked ; 
tail, round, nearly as long as the body, scaly, and slightly covered with 
short hair. 
COLOUR. 
Eyes, black ; incisors, yellowish ; whiskers, mostly black ; fur on the 
back, plumbeous at the roots, slightly tipped with brownish, giving it a 
dusky grayish colour ; ears a shade lighter : under surface, and beneath 
the tail, obscure ash-colour. 
There arc some varieties : — very rarely one is found black, others spot- 
ted white and black ; one variety is an albino, white with red eyes, breeds 
in confmement, and produces young with white colour, and the red eyes 
of the parents. 
