RAT KIND. 199 



ed to its advantage. The breadth, strength, and 

 shortness of the fore-feet, which are inclined out- 

 wards, answer the purposes of digging, serving to 

 throw back the earth with greater ease, and to 

 pursue the worms and insects which are its prey : 

 had they been longer, the falling in of the earth 

 would have prevented the quick repetition of its 

 strokes in working ; or have obliged it to make a 

 large hole, in order to give room for their exer- 

 tion. The form of the body is not less admirably 

 contrived for its way of life. The fore part is 

 thick, and very muscular, giving great strength 

 to the action of the fore-feet, enabling it to dig- 

 its way with amazing force and rapidity, either to 

 pursue its prey, or elude the search of the most 

 active enemy. By its power of boring the earth, 

 it quickly gets below the surface ; and I have 

 seen it, when let loose in the midst of a field, like 

 the ghost on a theatre, instantly sink into the 

 earth ; and the most active labourer, with a spade, 

 in vain attempted to pursue. 



The smallness of its eyes, which induced the 

 ancients to think it was blind, is, to this animal, 

 a peculiar advantage. A small degree of vision 

 is sufficient for a creature that is ever destined to 

 live in darkness. A more extensive sight would 

 only have served to show the horrors of its prison, 

 while nature had denied it the means of an es- 

 cape. Had this organ been larger, it would have 

 been perpetually liable to injuries, by the falling 

 of the earth into it ; but nature, to prevent that 

 inconvenience, has not only made them very 

 small, but very closely covered them with hair. 



