a field mouse found in Bengal. I made the
following notes regarding them: Fur very fine, close and silky,
rufescent brown, more rufous on the head, isabelline below; feet
flesh-coloured, hinder ones large, much larger than those of the
English mouse; the hind-quarters are also more powerful; has a very
pretty way of sitting up, with the body bent forwards, and its hands
clasped in an attitude of supplication. The young mice seem darker
both above and below, and are much more shy than the old ones, of
which one soon after being caught took bits of cake from my fingers
through the bars of its cage. More delicate looking than _Mus
urbanus_, with a much shorter and finer tail; less offensive in
smell.

Dr. Anderson got, not long ago, two of these mice in a box from Kohat.
They bore the journey uncommonly well, and were in lively condition
when I saw them at the Museum. Whilst we were talking about them,
we noticed an act of intelligence for which I should not have given
them credit had I not seen it with my own eyes. They were in a box
with a glass front; in the upper left-hand corner was a small sleeping
chamber, led up to by a sloping piece of wood. The entrance of this
chamber was barred by wires bent into the form of a lady's hair-pin,
and passed through holes in the roof of the box.

The mice had been driven out, and the sleeping-chamber barred, for
they were having their portraits taken. Whilst we were talking we
found, to our surprise, that one mouse was inside the chamber,
although the bars were down. There seemed hardly space for it to
squeeze through; however, it was driven out, and we went on with our
conversation, but found, on looking at the cage again, that our
little friend was once more inside, so he was driven out again, and
we kept an eye on him. To our great surprise and amusement we saw
him trot up his sloping board, put his little head on one side, and
seize one of the wires, which worked very loosely in its socket, give
it a hitch up, when he adroitly caught it lower down, hitched it up
again and again till he got it high enough to allow him to slip in
underneath, and then he was quite happy once more. He had only been
in the box two days, so he was not long in finding out the weak point.
I begin to believe now in rats dipping their tails into oil-bottles,
and other wonderful stories of murine sagacity that one reads of.
Mice, are supposed to live from two-and-a-half to three years. I had
the Engli