Where did the house mouse originate?
Sometimes america deports a no good gangster to the country of his birth. It would be fine if we could deport the little house mouse, also. He did not originate in the new world, and he certainly has proved himself to be an undesirable citizen. But unfortunately we cannot deport him. His offspring have become too numerous. The meadow mouse, the field mouse and the pretty white foot mouse are all native anericans. These and our other wild mice were enjoying life in the new world when columbus crossed the atlantic. But the house mouse was not here at that time. He did not arrive, we think, until much later. We have a good idea how he got here, but we are not sure of the date. The mice and rats belong in the order rodentia, the chewing animals. There are almost 6500 rodent animals, and science subdivides their order into families, genera and species. The house mouse is in a different family from the native wild mice of the new world. He originated in central asia, and, he was most likely
