86 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



My experiment was very simple. I had a large 

 nand (earthenware pan) placed in the verandah, and 

 then filled with earth nearly to the brim. I was careful 

 to select earth of the same description as that in which 

 I had found the beerbhootees. I then had two beer- 

 bhootees that we had dug up placed on the surface of 

 the earth in the nand. They were both fair-sized 

 specimens, about as large as peas. 



The beerbhootees were no sooner on the earth than 

 they commenced to burrow, but very slowly. They 

 burrowed so slowly that by the end of half an hour 

 they had not quite concealed themselves below the 

 surface. I allowed three days to elapse, and then 

 I had the earth very carefully removed from the surface 

 to ascertain to what depth the beerbhootees had bur- 

 rowed. I found that they had burrowed several inches. 

 About eleven days later I made a further examination. 

 The beerbhootees were found at the bottom of the 

 nand. The depth of earth that they had burrowed 

 through was between two and three feet. As I did not 

 know how long they had been at the bottom when we 

 discovered them there, I could not determine the exact 

 time it had taken them to descend this distance. 



I repeated the experiment two or three times on 

 other beerbhootees ; the results were generally the 

 same. I ascertained from these experiments that the 

 beerbhootees are able to burrow through the ordinary 

 soil ; also that they do not in their burrowing excavate 

 holes or tunnels, but merely work their way through 

 the sandy earth. This fact suggested another inquiry. 

 The beerbhootees on which the first experiment was 



