LEMMINGS. 269 



Now I by no means particiijate in the unbelief of Sir W. Hooker ; and I feel very sure that 

 had his " Tour in Iceland " been written in 1863 instead of 1813, the sceptical passage woidd not 

 have been found there. 



That an economic rodent lives in Iceland is, I think, established ; but the account given of its 

 runs and granaries makes it not less clear that it is not Mus sylvaticus. There is no European Mouse 

 that makes a nest in the manner described by Henderson. 



But there is an animal very like a Mouse (the Lemming) which does make extensive burrows. 

 It is provided with j)owerful sickle-shaped claws specially adapted for digging, and although I have 

 not met with any account of the j)lan on which tlieir burrows are constructed, there is abundant 

 evidence that they do make them. Captain M'Clintock says in his diary of the expedition of the 

 " Fox : " — " Hare-tracks are pretty common along the shore, and iipon the sides of steep hills ; they 

 make burrows under the snow, but we have never found them in the earth like those of the Fox and 

 Lemming." Von Baer says that in Nova Zembla gentle declivities are frequent!}' burrowed through 

 in every direction by them. In fact, the habit is notorious. 



Another point in favour of the Iceland animal being a Lemming is, that Olafseu speaks 

 of it as often white. Now although the Mus syI;VATIcus sometimes may be found white, when 

 such a thing occurs it is only a case of albinism, and rare. But the Lemming in America 

 is said regularly to become white in winter, although not so completely so as the Weasels. 

 Both in Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla a little white animal has been observed. MM. Pachtissow 

 and Ziwolka, during their winter stay in Nova Zembla, saw a little white animal in their hut which 

 they, in their journal, call a Mouse. According to Mr. Ziwolka it was larger than a common domes- 

 tic Mouse, and therefore could not have been a white individual of that species. It was doubtless 

 a Lemming. According to Von Baer there are two sjjecies of Lemming found in Nova Zembla, one 

 of which he considered identical with the Myodes Hudsonius. 



As the Lemming is an Arctic animal, it must pass a longer night of winter than ordinary 

 torpidity could survive. Some arrangement for a vrinter supply is therefore plainly necessary, and 

 it is scarcely possible to conceive anything better adapted to the purpose than that described by 

 Henderson. 



I have, therefore, no doubt in my own mind that the economic Mouse of Iceland is a Lemming ; 

 and as Greenland is the nearest point where Lemmings have been found, I think it a fair conjecture, 

 until rebutted by direct evidence, that the species found there is the American Lemming Myodes 

 Hudsonius. 



Five species of Lemming have been described as North American, and, with the exception of 

 the Greenland species, they have been thought peculiar to the New World. Middendorff 

 reduces them to two, both found in the Old World as well as in the New. If he is right in this, 

 the Lemmings supply two of the very few mammals which are found on both sides of the Atlantic. 



In addition to these there are three species found in Europe and Asia. One, M. i.emmus, 

 inhabiting the western part, Norway and Sweden ; a second, M. lagurus, the middle part about 

 the Ural River ; and the third, M. schisticolor, which has been found both in Norway and on the 

 west coast of the Sea of Ochotsk. 



Spalacini. 



Mole Rats. (Map 83.) A small group of mole-like burrowing Rats, nearly, or 

 wholly, blind. We are either very imperfectly acquainted with their range, or the group is 



