346 HlJlORY OF 



Other animals, as the pupil, the vitreous and crystalline humours*, 

 The fore-legs appear very short and strong, and furnished with 

 five claws to each. These are turned outwards and backwards, 

 as the hands of a man when swimming. The hind-legs are 

 longer and weaker than the fore, being only used to assist its 

 motions ; whereas the others are continually employed in digging. 

 The teeth are like those of a shrew-mouse, and there are five on 

 both sides of the upper jaw, which stand out ; but those behind 

 are divided into points. The tongue is as large as the mouth 

 will hold. 



Such is the extraordinary figure and formation of this animal, 

 which, if we compare with its manner of living, we shall find a 

 manifest attention in nature to adapt the one to the other.' As 

 it is allotted a subterraneous abode, the seeming defects of its 

 formation vanish, or rather are turned to its advantage. The 

 breadth, strength, and shortness of the fore-feet, which are in- 

 clined outwards, 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 larger hole in 

 order to give room for their exertion. 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 quick- 

 ly 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 thmk 

 it was blind, is, to this animal, a peculiar advantage. A smal\ 

 degree of vision is sufiicient 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 escape. 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 



1 British Zoology. 



