Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-02-20
siNGINe puApRuPEps.
kHiss which Are Gifted with the Ability
OF Making Music.

gOhNS Ahcn are SI1teu with tine ADIhty
of Making Music.
1t is not generally known that the
gift of song is given to any other Great
ures save birds and human kind. But
it is; and what surprises me is that
naturalists have had so little to say
+ about the songster to which l refer.
This is, so far as l can judge, simply n
gifted member of the mouse family, and
its place of abode is human dwellings.
am aware that the ''shrielx-mouse," so
! called, makes series of "fluttering'
sounds, and the grass-mouse is noisy
enough. especially if you unwarily tread
! in his nest; but l have heard in the
walls of house and elsewhere long
series of sweet and musica& sounds rip
ping from the threats of house-mice.
just as notes are scattered from the
throat of a bird.
Some years ago an associate editor OF
mine told me that two of the daintiest
little musicians that 1 ever saw came
/ into his office every night about twelve
o'clock, when all was STILL to eat crumbs
and afterward 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 n mouse coming MINI
! bly, toward the crumbs, which had been
scattered in another corner. But on
seeing two persons in the room he hest
tated and turned back, being met neal
| the hole by another mouse. In little
| while the two disappeared, and my friend
SAID that they were afraid of me, being
! stranger. They reappeared several
times afterward, and even vent
ured to nibble some of the scrumbs
when they found that did not modest
them. But not a mote did they give us,
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
IDENTIFY the holder of the two. suddenly
stopped aud burst ont into dainty and
musical ditty. | knew little about the
technique of music, but l 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.
| lie 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 rain-storm, sings,
"Sweet, sweet weather" The two lit
tie wonders continued their song for
| fully half an hour. then one of them
| turned into its hole, and the other fol-
! lowed. l am sorry to say that not
very long afterward q 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 this
came in my experience while spending
some days this autumn at Elmwood Cot
tage, Windsor, Nova Scotia. 1 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 increGlulOuS. and none had heard
| that there was such n creature, where
upon proceeded to give. as nearly as
could. an imitation of the scale and
song of the mouse. l had hardly ceased
when to the utmost astoniShment 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 a 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 cracller-eating pest. He still
comes to his accustomed hole for the
! crumbs and dainties which he is sure to
find awaiting him.--Edmund Collins, in
n. Y. Independent.