THE Mouse is much smaller, equally numerous, and more generally diffused than the rat.  It has the same instinct, the same constitution and natural dispositions, and differs only by its weakness, and the habits which result from this circumstance.  Timid by nature, and familiar from necessity, fear and want are the sources of all its movements.  He never issues from his hole but in quest of food, and runs in again upon the least alarm.  He goes not, like the rat, from house to house, unless he be forced, and is not near so destructive.  His manners are gentle, and he may be tamed to a certain degree; but he ne- [282] ver discovers the smallest attachment to his benefactors.  It is not, indeed, easy to love those who are perpetually laying snares for us.  Though weak, the mouse has many enemies, from whom he has no means of escape, but those of agility and minuteness.  Owls, birds of prey, cats, weasels, and even rats, make war upon the mice.  They are shot, caught in traps, and destroyed by millions.  In a word, they subsist by their amazing fecundity alone.

            They bring forth at all seasons, and several times in the year.  The litter generally consists of five or six.  In less than fifteen days, the young are strong enough to disperse, and to procure food for themselves.  The duration of life in those small animals must, therefore, be short, since their growth is so rapid; and this circumstance still farther augments the idea of their prodigious multiplication.  Aristotle tells us, that, having shut up a pregnant mouse in a vessel, along with plenty of grain, he, in a sort time, after, found 120 mice, all sprung from the same mother.

            These little animals are by no means ugly; they have a vivacious and elegant air.  That species of horror some people feel at them, arises from the surprise and inconveniencies they sometimes occasion.  All mice are whitish under the belly, and some are altogether white.  Others are more or less brown and black.  The species is generally diffused over Europe, Asia, and Africa; [283] and, it is alledged, that those of America, where they are very numerous, came originally from the Old Continent.  It is, however, certain, that this little animal follows man, and flies from uninhabited places, probably on account of its natural appetite for bread, cheese, butter, oil, and other aliment which men prepare for themselves.

            White mice, with red eyes, are found not only in our temperate climates, but in the southern and northern regions of both Continents.  “White mice, with red eyes,” says Pontoppidan, “have been found in the small village of Rams-dalem; but, whether they are indigenous, or brought from the East-Indies, is uncertain.”  This last supposition seems to have no foundation; for, it is natural to expect white mice in Norway, as well as every where else in Europe; and mice, in general, are equally numerous in America as in the Old Continent.’ [sic; the hanging apostrophe appears that way in the text] [284]

*  An animal that needs no description; when found white, it is very beautiful, the full bright eye appearing to great advantage amidst the snowy fur; Pennant’s Synops. of quad. p. 302.

            In Greek, [a word in Greek letters that I can’t duplicate on my keyboard]; in Latin, Mus, Musculus, Sorex; in Italian, Topo, Sorice, Sorgio ai casa; in Spanish, Rat; in German, Musz; in Swedish, Mus; in Polish, Myss; in French, La Souris.

            Mus domesticus communis, vel minor; Gesner. Icon. animal. quad. p. 114.

            Mus domesticus vulgaris, feu minor; Ray, Synops. animal. quad. p. 218.

            Mus musculus, cauda elongate, palmis tetradactylis, plantis pentadactylis; Lyn. Syst. p. 83.

            Mus minor, musculus vulgaris domesticus, cauda tereti longa; Klein. hist. nat. quad. p. 57.

            Mus cauda longissima, obscure cinereus, ventre subalbacente; Brisson, Regn. anim. p. 169 [back to page 282].