Mouse

MOUSE, in its original sense probably the name of the house mouse (Mus musculus), the type of the genus Mus and of the family Muridae. The distinctive characters of the typical mice, i.e., those included in the genus Mus, are dealt with in the article RODENTIA. With the exception of Madagascar, the genus Mus, and its allies, ranges over practically the whole of the Old World, having indigenous representatives even in Australasia; while the house-mouse has established itself throughout the civilized world. M. musculus, the house-mouse, originally a native of Central Asia, has spread to all the inhabited parts of the globe. Apodemus sylvaticus, the wood or long-tailed field-mouse, is common in many parts of England, often taking to barns and out-houses for shelter during the winter. It is of about the same size as M. musculus, but of a bright reddish-grey with a white belly. Mi cromys minutus, the harvest-mouse, is the smallest of the Euro pean mice, 21 or 3 in. in length, and a yellowish-red, with short ears and tail. It lives in wheat or hay fields, where it builds a round grass nest the size of a cricket-ball, in which it brings up its young. Its range extends from England to Japan. In Central Asia there exist wild mice M. bactrianus, and M. wagneri with the habits of a house-mouse, both closely allied to M. musculus; while there is a third kind (M. gentilis), also nearly related, in the deserts of North Africa. Mice derived from M. musculus are kept as pets in many parts of the world. Numerous breeds

are known, of which the Japanese waltzing mice, which have the habit due to a defect in the laby rinth of the ear of spinning round and round after their tails, are perhaps the most remarkable.

See

G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton, "Note on the Harvest-Mice of the Palaearctic Region," Annals and Magazine of Nat. History (April 5899) ; "On the Species of the genus Mus inhabiting St. Kilda," Proc. Zool. Soc. (1899) ; "On Geographical and Individual Variation in Mus sylvaticus and its Allies," op. cit. (19oo) ; W. E. Clarke, "On Forms of Mus musculus, with Description of a New Subspecies from the Faeroe Islands," Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. (Edinburgh, 1904), vol. xv. M. A. C. Hinton "Rats and Mice," Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Pamphlet.

the name by which members of the gen

us Colius are known—probably from their habit of creeping along the boughs of trees with the whole tarsus applied to the branch. The colies are placed in the family Coliidae, amongst Coraciiform birds, near the trogons and swifts (q.v.). The Coliidae are small birds, with a rather finch-like bill, a more or less crested head, a very long tail, and generally a dun or slate-coloured plumage that sometimes brightens into blue or is diversified with white or chest nut. They feed almost wholly on fruits, but occasionally take in sects. All the species belong to the Ethiopian region ranging from Abyssinia southwards. There are nine species.