A NATURALIST. 49 



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 

 discoverable during its living condition, nor are 

 they of any use to it above ground. In running 

 round a room (until it had 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 maggots 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. Fre- 

 quently 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 manner in which snakes 

 were destroyed by swine : his voracity readily ex- 

 citing a recollection of one of these animals, and 

 the poor worms writhing and twining about his jaws 

 answering for the snakes. It would be tedious were 

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