A NATURALIST. 47 



of Godman's American Natural History. All my re- 

 searches never enabled me to discover a nest, female or 

 young one of this species. All I ever caught were males, 

 though this most probably was a mere accident. The 

 breeding of the scalops is nearly all that is wanting to 

 render -our knowledge of it complete. 



This little animal has eyes, though they are not dis- 

 coverable during its living condition, nor are they of any 

 use to it above ground. In running round a room, (until 

 it jiad perfectly learned where all the obstacles stood,) it 

 would uniformly strike hard against them with its snout, 

 and then turn. It appeared to me as singular that a 

 creature which fed upon living earth worms with all the 

 greediness of a pig, would not destroy the larvae or mag- 

 gots of the flesh fly. A shrew-mole lived for many weeks 

 in my study, and made use of a gun case, into which he 

 squeezed himself, as a burrow. Frequently he would 

 carry the meat he was fed with into his retreat ; and as 

 it was warm weather, the flies deposited their eggs in 

 the same place. An offensive odour led me to discover 

 this circumstance, and I found a number of large larvae 

 over which the shrew-mole passed without paying them 

 any attention: nor would he, when hungry, accept of 

 such food, though nothing could exceed the eager haste 

 with which he seized and munched earth worms. Often 

 when engaged in observing him thus employed, have I 

 thought of the stories told me, when a boy, of the man- 

 ner in which snakes were destroyed by swine ; his vora- 



