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Show 1892.] DR. J. ANDERSON ON SPALAX TYPHLUS. 475 As an illustration of the energy of this animal and of the strength resident in its neck-muscles and head, I may mention that one of them forced open, during the night, one end of the overlapping lid of the tin box in which it was confined, and escaped, even although the lid was firmly tied down in the middle and was weighted above. It achieved this feat by standing on its hind legs and by inserting its broad spatulate head between the lid and the box. In the morning it was found concealed between the folds of the cover of a dressing-bag. "The chief object of this note,however,is not to record the habits of this remarkable animal, but to place on record its occurrence in Egypt. It was known to Aristotle, and during the last two centuries it has been described and figured by many naturalists. It is the only representative of the genus Spalax, if these Egyptian individuals prove to be the same as the European animal, which is found in Poland, Southern Hungary, and Eastern Russia,indeed over nearly the whole of South-eastern Europe, extending, as pointed out by Olivier in the beginning of .the present century, to Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia, and of late years found by Canon Tristram in Palestine as far south as the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and by M r . H . C. Hart at Gaza. If I have not overlooked any of the literature of this subject, it is now recorded for the first time from the African Continent. " The Arabs know it as the Abu-amma. Abu means father, and amma blind; and I a m informed that the two may be translated as meaning the truly or essentially blind. In the specimens sent round, the one in alcohol has the head intact, while in the other semi-dried specimen the skin has been reflected to exhibit the small eye, a mere black speck among the muscles, which Olivier states is perfectly organized, but I have not as yet examined it myself. It will be observed that the under surface of the reflected skin exhibits no trace of the remains of an eye-opening, and that the eye is separated from the skin proper by a thick layer of the skin-muscle, which I have partially dissected out. The presence of this muscular layer must exclude even the faintest sensation of light, so that, in time, all trace of an eye will probably be lost if the animal retains its present habit of using its head in burrowing, which is doubtless the cause of the disappearance externally of the delicate organ of sight. Of course its seemingly thoroughly underground habit of life also contributed its influence in dwarfing the eye. The first instinct of the animal when it is taken from its burrow and is let loose on the surface soil is to dig its head into the earth, the transverse ridge on the bare hard nose and the vibrissal ridge on the side of the head being special modifications of structure depending on this habit of life. This action of the large broad head is of course materially aided by the fore feet; but these structures are scarcely more developed than those of a common rat of the dimensions of itself, and the claws are only of moderate size. " Spalax moves backwards in its burrows with remarkable ease, as I observed in one of the specimens captured; the reversible character of the fur and the reduction of the tail to a mere rudiment facilitate this movement. |
