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 ie 
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 
forefeetare, like the mole’s, converted into diggers; 
