482 BAMBOO RATS CHAP. 
work, I used frequently to watch them, and found that the loose 
earth from their excavations was brought to the bottom of the 
crater, and sent with great force into the air in a succession. of 
rapid jerks, and that they themselves never ventured forth from 
the shelter of the burrows.” ! 
Fam. 4. Spalacidae.—“ The Spalacidae,” observes Dr. Blan- 
ford, “are sometimes called rodent moles, and resemble a mole in 
general aspect, having cylindrical bodies, short limbs, small eyes 
and ears, large claws, and a short or rudimentary tail.” The 
existence of a spiral valve in the caecum may perhaps characterise 
this family ; but it has at present only been found in the two 
genera Spalax and Rhizomys. 
Spalax has inconspicuous eyes and external ears. The tail is 
totally absent. The lower incisors are more developed than in 
other Rodents ; they project in a bony sheath beyond the posterior 
end of the ramus of the lower jaw. The scapula is long and 
narrow. The large intestine is half the length of the small in- 
testine. The omince seems to have only two pairs of teats, one 
pectoral the other inguinal. 
Spalax typhlus of “Egy pt, which is -aekabie not different from 
the European form, makes extensive burrows, some of the branches 
beimg even 50 to 40 yards in length. In a “ domical chamber,’ 
situated along the course of one of these burrows, Dr. Anderson 
found no less than 68 bulbs stored up. Its eyes are mere black 
specks among the muscles, but they appear, however, to have a 
proper organisation. There are altogether eight species of the 
genus, which is entirely Palaearctic in its range. 
The genus Lhizomys, including a number of species known 
as Bamboo Rats, is purely Oriental in range. Rh. sumatrensis 
reaches a length of 19 inches; the better-known species, th. 
badius, is at most only 9 inches in length—in both cases the 
measurements are exclusive of the tail, which is a quarter to 
one-third of the length of the body, and is not scaly but nearly 
naked, with a few scattered hairs. The molars are three, and 
the incisors usually orange in colour; but sometimes the upper 
incisors are white as in Lh. badius. There are thirteen dorsal 
vertebrae. In &h. pruinosus the large intestine is considerably 
longer than the small intestine; the lengths of the two sections 
of the gut are 42 and 30 inches respectively. In another 
1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 611. 
