The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-30
- YOUNG HOUSE MOE.

| No matter what may be the short. | comings of the common mouse, as ar 1 infant at least it is an extremely grace 1 full and interesting little creature, All | young mice are pretty after they be- gin to get their fur, and most of them
 are bright and active, but the young , house mouse is the prettlest and bright est, albeit the most vicious, of them all. House mice as a rule are born in nests which have been made in the walls or floors of the house or barn, or perhaps in an old bureau which has not been used for a while. But sometimes they are born out of doors in a nest of
 dried grass, leaves or any suitable ma
 terial which their parents can find. Not
 long ago a neighbor of mine found
 such a nest in q heap of loam which
 was being removed from his barn yard.
 There were eight little mice, all blind
 and thinly covered with light gray fur.
 He kindly brought the whole family to
 me- and I have had them under obser-
 vation ever since. The mother had es-
 caped and there was nothing for 1t but
 to try to rear them by hand. They
 were extremely difficult to manage;
 much more so than either young deer
 mice or meadow mice of the same age
 In the first place they were more obsti-
 nate and never took their food without
 a hard fight against 1t, and their great
 made 1t quite a problem to hold them
 q
 quently did their little best to bite me,
 q thing l have never known any other
 young mice to do before they got their sight. They required a fire all the time, and for several days it was necessary to feed them at frequent intervals, day and night During the first twenty four hours I fed them seventeen times, and as 1t never took less than half an hour and often more than forty-five minutes to feed the whole family, 1t is not difficult to imagine what fun they must have been, They could run and jump even before their eyes were open and one of them climbed twice up a perpendicular stick twelve inches high The day they got their sight one of them jumped from my hand to the floor and l had such trouble to catch him that it occurred to me to enter him for a race. I chose for his opponent a young meadow mouse, five weeks old, a perfect giant beside the tiny house mouse. but in race across the dining room floor the little fellow won, hands down"
 It was very amusing to see the baby house mice wash themselves, which they did long before their eyes were open. They sat on their hind legs, and began by carefully licking their fingers. Then with their little wet hands they rapidly washed their noses, then the sides of their faces, and round behind their ears last of all. When one of them wanted to wash the inside of his gar he took the corresponding hind foot | n one hand licked it all over and then l applied it vigorously to his organ of l nearing. They occupied a great deal of | .ime in washing, and when not cleaning | themselves, they were often engaged | n licking one another, as cat licks | Ter kittens.
 The day they discovered the way to | ap milk themselves, curious thing |
  ,avirg struggle every time they took | milk, that when at last they were able | o take it without assistance, from heer force of habit, after every few nouthfus they threw themselves back, casped, beat the air with their front l ,aws and went through all the motions f a fight. Then they quietly resumed l their milk
 As climbers I have never seen them aualled by any other mice. The day l fter their eyes were open they scam- cred all over the trunk of maple tree
 nd the following day 1 gave them a ,ush with very fine branches. They limbed all over it rapidly and with reat ease, even over hair-like twigs. ,n very thin twigs they walked upright $ long as they could, using their tails s balancing poles. and when they final