42S 



VERTEBRATA, 



able creatures in the whole circle of mammalogy. This is the Zemmi or Zemni, S. typhlua, the 

 Mus typhlua of Pallas; the Podolian Marmot of Pennant; the Blind Rat of Shaw. Its length is 

 about seven or eight inches, there being no tail ; the head is broader than the body; no aperture 

 for the eyes, which, no bigger than poppy-seeds, are hid beneath the skin, so that the animal is 

 entirely destitute of the sense of sight! There arc no external ears; the end of the nose is 

 covered with a thick skin; nostrils very remote, and placed below; limbs very short ; claws short; 

 hair or fur short, thick, and very soft, dusky at the bottom and cinereous-gray at the tip; space 

 about the nose and above tie' mouth, white. In compensation for its want of sight, it is said that, 

 the hearing of the spalax is very acute. 



This species, which is no doubt the spalax of Aristotle, and which he found to be without the 

 power of vision, the Russians name Slepez or the Blind, ami the Cossacks Sfochor Nomon, signi- 

 fying the same defect ; it burrows extensively beneath the turf, driving at intervals lateral passages 

 in its search for roots, particularly that of the bulbous Chceropkyllum. Openings to the surface 

 occur at distances of some yards from each other, and there the earth is raised into hillocks, 

 sometimes of two yards in circumference, and of considerable height. It works stoutly and 

 rapidly, and <>n the approach of an enemy instantly digs a perpendicular burrow. Though it 

 cannot see, it lifts its head in a menacing attitude toward an assailant, and, when irritated, snorts 

 and gnashes its teeth, but emits no cry : its bite is very severe. In the morning it often quits it- 

 hole, and during the season of love basks in the sun with the female. It is worthy of notice that 

 there runs a superstition in the Ukraine that the hand which has suffocated one of these animals 

 is gifted with the virtue of curing scrofula or the King's Evil, in the same way that it was sup- 

 posed to vanish before the royal touch of the Stuarts in England. 



It is found in the southern parts of Russia, from Poland to the Volga, but not to the east of 

 that river; it is common from the Sysran to the Sarpa, and frequent along the Don, even to its 

 origin, and about the town of Rcesk, but not in the sandy parts. 



It is supposed that two other species exist, but they are not authentically described. 



•— . vvc •• 





1^1 *' x 



SHOUT-TAILED FIELD-MICE 





THE MURIENS, OR RATS AXD MICE GENERALLY. 



This tribe is more numerous in species than that of any other among the mammals, and though < 

 considerable differences exist among them, they all possess the general characteristics of Rats or 

 Mice. 



(rinus LEMMING: Lnnmus. — Of this there are several species, the' most celebrated ot ^ 

 which is the Lapland Lemming, L. Norvegicus. This is confined to Lapland and Norway. It )?• 



