The success of both the house mouse and the house rat in establishing themselves so successfully in all parts of the world, in the face of the antagonism of mankind, affords marvelous examples of physical and mental adaptability not equaled elsewhere among mammals.
From early days the domestic mouse has been a familiar member of the household with people of all degree, and the housewife has had to match her wits against the cunning persistence of this small marauder in order to safeguard the family supplies of food and clothing.
Despite the antagonism excited by its destructive habits the mouse is so small and often so amusing in its ways that it has commonly been regarded with a half hostile, half friendly, interest. This is apparent by frequent references to it in proverbs, nursery rhymes, fables, and folklore, as well as in more serious literature.
Many cases of singing house mice have been recorded, their notes being a series of continuous musical chirps, trills, and warblings, rising and falling about an octave and slightly resembling the song of a canary. It has been claimed that this singing is due to an affection of the songster’s breathing organs, but this can scarcely account for its being uttered at definite times and places and ceasing at the volition of the performer.
In one instance the song had been heard in a china closet and an observer sat by the open door to locate the singer. After patient waiting “a mouse peered out from behind the plates, climbed up a little way on the brackets, and after looking around several times, began to sing.” This mouse continued to sing in the same place at intervals for several weeks and became accustomed to the presence of people during its performances; then it suddenly disappeared, probably a victim to one of the dangers which constantly beset its kind.
THE MOUNTAIN-BEAVER (Aplodontia rufa phaea and its relatives)
(For illustration, [see page 534])
The first adventurous fur traders who penetrated the Oregon wilds found the Chinook Indians provided with robes made of skins of the mountain-beaver. From that time until recently but little accurate information has been available concerning the habits of this curious animal. Locally it is known by several other names, including “Sewellel,” “mountain boomer,” “boomer,” and, in the Olympic mountains, “chehalis.”
The genus of mountain-beavers contains only a single species with several subspecies, all having a close superficial likeness in size and form to a tailless muskrat, except for their coarse, harsh fur. It is an exclusively North American type and, aside from a remote relationship to the squirrel family, has no kin among living mammals. It appears to be a sole survivor from some former age. As with the pocket gophers, its mode of life has developed powerful muscles about the head, front legs, and forepart of the body.
The distribution of the mountain-beaver in Tertiary times extended through the Great Basin to North Dakota, but at present is closely restricted to the humid region between the crests of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific coast, and from the lower Fraser River, British Columbia, south to the latitude of San Francisco Bay, California.