340 ORGANISATION OF THE UROTRICHUS. 



a shutter, effectually preventing sand and minute 

 particles of dust from getting into the nose whilst 

 digging. 



Now this curious nasal appendage is to this 

 miner not only an organ of smell, but also serves 

 the purpose of hands and eyes. His forefeet, as 

 I shall by-and-by show you, are wholly digging 

 implements, and, from their peculiar horny char- 

 acter, not in any way adapted to convey the sense 

 of touch. Eyes he has none, and but a very 

 rudimentary form of ear; his highly sensitive 

 moveable nose serves him admirably in the dark 

 tunnels, in which his time is passed, to feel his 

 way and scent out the lower forms of insect life, 

 on which he principally feeds. Had he eyes he 

 could not see, for the sunlight never peeps in to 

 cheer his subterranean home, and sound reaches 

 not down to him. The busy hum of insect life, 

 and the song of feathered choristers, he hears 

 not, so that highly-developed hearing appendages 

 would have been useless and superfluous. 



But his nose in every way compensates for all 

 these apparent deficiencies, and shows us how 

 to be admired is Creative Goodness in shaping 

 and adapting the meanest and humblest of His 

 creatures to its habits and modes of life. His 

 forefeet are, like the mole's, converted into diggers; 



