Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-02-12
SINGING QUADRUPEDS.
''e iich Are Gifted with the Abilit
of Making Music

II Is not generally known that the
gnu oi song is given to any other Great
ures save birds and human kind. Rut
IL Is and what surprises me is that
haIurallStS have had so little to saw
auout The songster to which / refer.
ms Is SO Tar as | can judge, simply a
silCeu member OF the mouse family. and
IIs Place OF abode is human dwellings.
am aware that the ''shriek-mouse" so
cd'ieu' makes series of ''fiuttering''
SOUNDS, and the grass-mouse is noisy
enough, especially if you unwarily tread
In ms nest; but / have heard in the
walls OF house and elsewhere long
series OF sweet and musical sounds rip
ping from the threats of hOuse-mice
just as notes are scattered from the
throat of bird
Some years ago an associate editor of
NINE told me that two of the daintiest
little musicians that l ever saw came
INTO his office every night about twelve
O'Clock, when all was still. to eat crum bs
and atterward sing. l sat with him to
hear the performance. The colored
purveyor left coffee and sandwiches in
the Office about a quarter of MIDNIGHT
and we both began to eat. Presently
my friend pointed to the corner of the
room, and L saw a mouse coming nim-
bly, toward the crumbs, which had been
scattered in another corner But on
seeing two persons in the room he hest
tated ard turned back, being met near
the hole by another mouse In little
while the two disappeared, and my friend
SAID that they We're afraid of me, being
a stranger. They reappeared several
ured to nibble some of the scrumbs
when they found that | did not modest
them. But not a mote did they give u.s.
although we waited till one o'clock
was there again the next evening,
and the two entered without any hesita-
ton and began feeding. Having salts
fed themselves. they began to gambol
about till it seemed to me they had
grown tired. Then the one which had
entered first. he being the larger and evil
IDENTITY the holder of the two. suddenly
stopped aud burst out into a dainty and
musical ditty. l knew little about the
technique of music, but | know the
little creature ran up and down per-
feet scale OF musical notes, and then
seemed to gather several together and
throw them out at once.
He was soon joined by the other. and
the combined singing would be audible
all through the fiat. if the doors We're
open. The note is silvery. thin and
sweet. and to my ear almost exactly
like that of the finch or sparrow,
which, before a raiD-storm sings,
Sweet. sweet weather. The two lit
tie wonders continued their song for
fully half an hour, then one of them
turned into it's hole, and the other fol-
lowed. | am sorry to say that not
very long afterward cat put an end
to one of the little musicians. and its
companion was not heard or seen after
ward.
But something more curious than IhiS
came in my experience while spending
some days this autumn at ElmwOOd Cot
tage, Windsor Nova Scotia. | was
seated conversing with the family about
ten o'clock in the evening and mentioned
having heard two mice sing some years
before. Some of my hearers were al
most incredulOuS. and none had heard
that there was such creature, where
upon / proceeded to give, as nearly as
could an imitation of the scale and
song of the mouse. / had hardl Y ceased
when to the utmost establishment of us
all, mouse struck up in the wall OF
the room where we sat. and with a
song so loud that it could be heard
all over the house. In little
while it stopped, and presently the
song came from another quarter. 1t
continued its singing internationally for
fully an hour, and then stopped. Not a
note had ever been heard before from
it, and the opinion of those present was
that my crude attempt at giving the
mouse song had set the little listener
going. He sang many evenings after
ward, and [ understand that he has been
seen. and has long been an almost tame
pet of the house. though till the night
in question. of course. no one had con-
sidered him different from any other
little cracker-eating pest. He still
comes to his accustomed hole for the
crumbs and dainties which he is sure TO
find awaiting hin.-EdmuIi Collins, in
y. y. Independent