COMMON MOLE. 23 
for the broad and flat bones of the pectoral and_ pelvic 
arches in the Saurian reptiles. To any one unacquainted 
with the extraordinary and exceptional development of the 
humerus, or arm-bone, of a mole, the real nature of the 
bone is little likely to be divined: from its shape it should 
be ranked rather with the flat than the long bones of the 
skeleton. Its prodigiously developed tuberosities and con- 
dyles relate to the mass and force of the muscles which 
are required to work the spade-shaped paw in the act of 
excavating the soil. One of the fossil humeri of the 
Bacton skeleton is figured at c, cut 8, and I here subjoin 
the representation of the whole bony framework of the 
fossorial anterior extremities of the mole: s indicates the 
Fig. 11. 
pone De Bianca ae 
scapule, or blade-bones; c, the clavicles, or collar-bones ; 
h, the humeri, or arm-bones; wu, the ulna, and 7, the ra- 
dius, both bones of the fore-arm ; i, the outermost of the 
five metacarpal bones, between which and the bones of the 
fore-arm the small bones of the wrist, or carpal bones, are 
situated, of which a most extraordinary sabre-shaped one, 
e, is peculiar to the Mole, and strengthens that margin of 
the broad palm which first digs into the earth like the 
spade’s edge: the short and strong phalanges of the fingers 
are indicated by the numerals 1, 2, 3. 
