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The genus Mus or typical mice refers to a specific genus of muroid rodents, all typically called mice (the adjective "muroid" comes from the word "Muroidea", which is a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, gerbils, and many other relatives), though the term can be used for other rodents.
Mice feature in some of Beatrix Potter's small books, including The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904), The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse (1910), The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse (1918), and The Tailor of Gloucester (1903), which last was described by J. R. R. Tolkien as perhaps the nearest to his idea of a fairy story, the rest being "beast-fables". [14]
House mouse (Mus musculus) Phase specific vocalizations of male mice at the initial encounter during the courtship sequence. A mouse (pl.: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate.
Mice are good jumpers, climbers, and swimmers, and are generally considered to be thigmotactic, i.e. usually attempt to maintain contact with vertical surfaces. [citation needed] Mice are mostly crepuscular or nocturnal; they are averse to bright lights. The average sleep time of a captive house mouse is reported to be 12.5 hours per day.
The Old World rats and mice, part of the subfamily Murinae in the family Muridae, comprise at least 519 species.Members of this subfamily are called murines.In terms of species richness, this subfamily is larger than all mammal families except the Cricetidae and Muridae, and is larger than all mammal orders except the bats and the remainder of the rodents.
In the English language, many animals have different names depending on whether they are male, female, young, domesticated, or in groups. The best-known source of many English words used for collective groupings of animals is The Book of Saint Albans , an essay on hunting published in 1486 and attributed to Juliana Berners . [ 1 ]
As a result of this biological exponential growth, vole populations can grow very large within a short time. One mating pair can produce 100 offspring in a year. Voles outwardly resemble several other small animals. Moles, gophers, mice, rats and even shrews have similar characteristics and behavioral tendencies.
The Muroidea are a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives.Although the Muroidea originated in Eurasia, [1] they occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except Antarctica.