1892.] DR. J. ANDERSON ON SPALAX TYPHLUS. 475 



As an illustration of the energy of this animal and of the strength 

 resident in its neck-muscles and head, I may mention that one of 

 them forced open, during the night, one end of the overlapping lid 

 of the tin box in which it was confined, and escaped, even although 

 the lid was firmly tied down in the middle and was weighted above. 

 It achieved this feat by standing on its hind legs and by inserting 

 its broad spatulate head between the lid and the box. In the 

 morning it was found concealed between the folds of the cover of a 

 dressing-bag. 



" The chief object of this note, however, is not to record the habits of 

 this remarkable animal, but to place on record its occurrence in Egypt. 

 It was known to Aristotle, and during the last two centuries it has 

 been described and figured by many naturalists. It is the only 

 representative of the genus Spalax, if these Egyptian individuals 

 prove to be the same as the European animal, which is found in 

 Poland, Southern Hungary, and Eastern Russia,indeed over nearly the 

 whole of South-eastern Europe, extending, as pointed out by Olivier 

 in the beginning of the present century, to Syria, Mesopotamia, and 

 Persia, and of late years found by Canon Tristram in Palestine as far 

 south as the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and by Mr. H. C. Hart 

 at Gaza. If I have not overlooked any of the literature of this sub- 

 ject, it is now recorded for the first time from the African Continent. 



" The Arabs know it as the Ahu-amma. Abu means father, and 

 amma blind ; and I am informed that the two may be translated as 

 meaning the truly or essentially blind. In the specimens sent round, 

 the one in alcohol has the head intact, while in the other semi-dried 

 specimen the skin has been reflected to exhibit the small eye, a mere 

 black speck among the muscles, which Olivier states is perfectly 

 organized, but I have not as yet examined it myself. It will be 

 observed that the under surface of the reflected skin exhibits no trace 

 of the remains of an eye-opening, and that the eye is separated from the 

 skin proper by a thick layer of the skin-muscle, which I have partially 

 dissected out. The presence of this muscular layer must exclude 

 even the faintest sensation of light, so that, in time, all trace of an 

 eye will probably be lost if the animal retains its present habit of 

 using its head in burrowing, which is doubtless the cause of the 

 disappearance externally of the delicate organ of sight. Of course 

 its seemingly thoroughly underground habit of life also contributed 

 its influence in dwarfing the eye. The first instinct of the animal 

 when it is taken from its burrow and is let loose on the surface soil 

 is to dig its head into the earth, the transverse ridge on the bare 

 hard nose and the vibrissal ridge on the side of the head being special 

 modifications of structure depending on this habit of life. This 

 action of the large broad head is of course materially aided by the 

 fore feet ; but these structures are scarcely more developed than 

 those of a common rat of the dimensions of itself, and the claws 

 are only of moderate size. 



" Spalax moves backwards in its burrows with remarkable ease, 

 as I observed in one of the specimens captured ; the reversible cha- 

 racter of the fur and the reduction of the tail to a mere rudiment 

 facilitate this movement. 



