It is odd indeed that the remarkable capacity of the dancer for the
execution of quick, graceful, dextrous, bizarre, and oft-repeated
movements has not been utilized in America as it has in Japan. The mice
are inexhaustible sources of amusement as well as invaluable material for
studies in animal behavior and intelligence.

Concerning the origin and history of this curious variety of mouse little
is definitely known. I have found no mention of the animal in scientific
literature previous to 1890. The fact that it is called the Chinese
dancing mouse, the Japanese dancing mouse, and the Japanese waltzing mouse
is indicative of the existing uncertainty concerning the origin of the
race.

Thinking that Japanese literature might furnish more information bearing
on the question of racial history than was available from European
sources, I wrote to Professor Mitsukuri of the University of Tokyo, asking
him whether any reliable records of the dancer existed in Japan. He
replied as follows: "I have tried to find what is known in Japan about the
history of the Japanese waltzing mice, but I am sorry to say that the
results are wholly negative. I cannot find any account of the origin of
this freak, either authentic or fictitious, and, strange as it may seem to
you, no study of the mice in a modern sense has been made, so you may
consider the literature on the mouse in the Japanese language as
absolutely _nil_." In explanation of this somewhat surprising ignorance of
the origin of the race in what is commonly supposed to be its native land,
Professor Mitsukuri adds: "The breeders of the mice have mostly been
ignorant men to whom writing is anything but easy."

In response to similar inquiries, I received the following letter,