Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson LV · Topic 6: Mammal study
55. The house mouse
Goal: Your child can describe how a mouse's color, tail, whiskers, teeth and agility help it live alongside people.
You'll need
- A pet mouse (your own, a friend's, a classroom pet, or one at a pet store); pet mice are tame house mice
- A hand lens
- Nature notebook
What's in the book
The leading thought, the method (a cage of wire screen or two glass jars mouth to mouth, with stripped paper and a hanging string for climbing) and nine questions on its color and fur, tail, jumping and climbing, eyes and ears, snout, whiskers and teeth, how it reaches up and washes, its nest and young, how mice travel, and other kinds of mice.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Any season, indoors. Comstock's classes caught wild house mice and kept them in jars. Today wild mice should not be caught or handled: they can carry diseases, and the droppings of wild mice (especially deer mice) can make people very sick. A tame pet mouse is the same animal, and safe to watch.
Wash hands after handling any pet mouse or its cage.
Keep the big idea in mind
Read this to yourself:
The mouse is fitted by color, form, agility and habits to thrive upon the food which it steals from man, and to live in the midst of civilized people.
Color and fur
Why is the color of the mouse of special benefit to it? Do you think it protects it from the sight of its enemies?
What is the nature of the fur of a mouse?
(Pet mice come in many colors; the wild house mouse is gray-brown.)
The tail
How long is a mouse's tail as compared with its body? What is the covering of the tail?
Watch the mouse carefully and discover, if you can, the use of the tail in climbing.
Comstock hung a stiff string in the cage for the mouse to climb.
Face
What is the shape of the snout? Of what advantage is this? Note the whiskers. What is their use?
Describe the eyes. Do you think the mouse can see very well?
What is the shape of the ears? Do you think it can hear well?
Washing up
How does the mouse act when it is reaching up to examine something? How does it hold its front feet? Describe how the mouse washes its face. Its back. Its feet.
Put it into words
Ask your child how a mouse manages to live in people's houses without being seen. Then share the leading thought.
Nature notebook
Draw the mouse sitting up washing its face. Label the whiskers, ears, long tail and the front feet it uses like hands.
Afterwards
Comstock's last question asks about other mice: white-footed mice, meadow mice, jumping mice. Look them up in a book and draw one.
Tip
If you see signs of mice at home (droppings, chewed food), an adult should clean up with gloves and a disinfectant spray rather than sweeping, which stirs up dust.