COMMON MOLE. 23 



for the broad and flat bones of the pectoral and pelvic 

 arches in the Saurian reptiles. To any one unacquainted 

 with the extraordinary and exceptional development of the 

 humerus, or arm-bone, of a mole, the real nature of the 

 bone is little likely to be divined : from its shape it should 

 be ranked rather with the flat than the long bones of the 

 skeleton. Its prodigiously developed tuberosities and con- 

 dyles relate to the mass and force of the muscles which 

 are required to work the spade-shaped paw in the act of 

 excavating the soil. One of the fossil humeri of the 

 Bacton skeleton is figured at c, cut 8, and I here subjoin 

 the representation of the whole bony framework of the 

 fossorial anterior extremities of the mole : s indicates the 



From De Blainvitte. 



scapulae, or blade-bones; c, the clavicles, or collar-bones; 

 A, the humeri, or arm-bones ; w, the ulna, and r, the ra- 

 dius, both bones of the fore-arm ; m, the outermost of the 

 five metacarpal bones, between which and the bones of the 

 fore-arm the small bones of the wrist, or carpal bones, are 

 situated, of which a most extraordinary sabre-shaped one, 

 0, is peculiar to the Mole, and strengthens that margin of 

 the broad palm which first digs into the earth like the 

 spade's edge : the short and strong phalanges of the fingers 

 are indicated by the numerals 1, 2, 3. 



