work, I used frequently to watch them, and found that the loose earth from their excavations was brought to the bottom of the crater, and sent with great force into the air in a succession of rapid jerks, and that they themselves never ventured forth from the shelter of the burrows."[1]
Fam. 4. Spalacidae.—"The Spalacidae," observes Dr. Blanford, "are sometimes called rodent moles, and resemble a mole in general aspect, having cylindrical bodies, short limbs, small eyes and ears, large claws, and a short or rudimentary tail." The existence of a spiral valve in the caecum may perhaps characterise this family; but it has at present only been found in the two genera Spalax and Rhizomys.
Spalax has inconspicuous eyes and external ears. The tail is totally absent. The lower incisors are more developed than in other Rodents; they project in a bony sheath beyond the posterior end of the ramus of the lower jaw. The scapula is long and narrow. The large intestine is half the length of the small intestine. The animal seems to have only two pairs of teats, one pectoral the other inguinal.
Spalax typhlus of Egypt, which is probably not different from the European form, makes extensive burrows, some of the branches being even 30 to 40 yards in length. In a "domical chamber," situated along the course of one of these burrows, Dr. Anderson found no less than 68 bulbs stored up. Its eyes are mere black specks among the muscles, but they appear, however, to have a proper organisation. There are altogether eight species of the genus, which is entirely Palaearctic in its range.
The genus Rhizomys, including a number of species known as Bamboo Rats, is purely Oriental in range. Rh. sumatrensis reaches a length of 19 inches; the better-known species, Rh. badius, is at most only 9 inches in length—in both cases the measurements are exclusive of the tail, which is a quarter to one-third of the length of the body, and is not scaly but nearly naked, with a few scattered hairs. The molars are three, and the incisors usually orange in colour; but sometimes the upper incisors are white as in Rh. badius. There are thirteen dorsal vertebrae. In Rh. pruinosus the large intestine is considerably longer than the small intestine; the lengths of the two sections of the gut are 42 and 30 inches respectively. In another
- ↑ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 611.
