Chap. II. CONSTRUCTION OF THEIR BURROWS. 117 



bers contained many small sharp bits of stone 

 and husks of flax-seeds. They must also 

 have contained living seeds, for on the follow- 

 ing spring Mr. Carnagie saw grass-plants 

 sprouting out of some of the intersected 

 chambers. I found at Abinger in Surrey 

 two burrows terminating in similar chambers 

 at a depth of 36 and 41 inches, and these 

 were lined or paved with little pebbles, 

 about as large as mustard seeds ; and in 

 one of the chambers there was a decayed 

 oat-grain, with its husk. Hensen likewise 

 states that the bottoms of the burrows are 

 lined with little stones ; and where these 

 could not be. procured, seeds, apparently of 

 the pear, had been used, as many as fifteen 

 having been carried down into a single 

 burrow, one of which had germinated.* We 

 thus see how easily a botanist might be 

 deceived who wished to learn how long 

 deeply buried seeds remained alive, if he 

 were to collect earth from a considerable 

 depth, on the supposition that it could 

 contain onlv seeds which had long; lain 

 buried. It is probable that the little stones, 



* • Zeitschrift fur wisseaschaft. Zoolog.' B. xxviii. 1877, p. 356. 



K 2 



