Animals: Receiver

In Coney Island, N. Y., pending settlement of a suit Mrs. Little Docen last week was appointed receiver of her husband’s property listed as follows: four two-legged dogs, two six-legged sheep, one five-legged sheep, one three-legged chicken, one animal half sheep, half goat, one two-legged cat, two six-footed cats, one chicken “with a human face.”

Mouseries

Before the War, William A. Wilson was a chemist. After the War he was an invalid, unfit for strenuous work. In Springfield, Mo. he tried raising pigeons and guinea pigs, failed to make a living. Then he met H. B. Sutter, a fruit grower, who suggested raising white mice for scientific experiments. Two years ago they bought 20 mice, paired them. Every three to six weeks a white mouse produces a litter of eight to twelve white mouselets, who within three months are themselves producing litters of eight to twelve white mouselets. Last week the Wilson-Sutter mousery consisted of some 35,000 white mice, all fertile. Mouserymen Wilson & Sutter were shipping some 3,000 per week, at 4¢ per mouse, to jobbers who sell them to laboratories in New York, Chicago, Wisconsin, etc. The Wilson-Sutter mousery consists of a series of double-decked boxes, 15 in. by 27 in., containing 200 mice per row. The mice are usually sold when three-fourths grown; weight 25 grams. White mice are affectionate, like to be tickled behind the ears.

The Wilson-Sutter mousery has four Springfield competitors. Residents in the mousery district last week complained to the city council that the mice were a nuisance. Mayor H. B. Durst investigated, declined to act. Said he: “They are less of a nuisance than most chicken yards.”