MOLE, MOLE- CRICKET, AND ANT-BEAR. 227 



with its powerful armature of strong and sharp claws, and its 

 broad blade of a palm. The reader will easily see that in 

 this animal the digging powers are wonderfully developed. 

 The peculiar form of the fore- foot closely resembles that of 

 the miner's spade, while the curvature of the palm serves, 

 almost without exertion, to throw out the earth which has 

 been scooped away by the sharp claws. 



To watch a Mole burrow is really a curious sight, the only 

 drawback being that the animal sinks itself so rapidly beneath 

 the earth that a long inspection is impossible. I have kept 

 several moles for the purpose of watching their habits, and 

 have always been interested in their mode of burrowing. I 

 can only define it by using the word " scrabbling." The 

 animal scurries and hurries about, seeking for a tolerably soft 

 piece of ground. When it has found one, it travels no further, 

 but scratches away with its fore-paws with wonderful power 

 and rapidity, seeming to sink, as it were, into the earth, rather 

 than to excavate a tunnel. 



There is 'an insect well known to entomologists, called the 

 Mole-cricket, because its structure and many of its habits are 

 strangely similar to those of the animal from which it derives 

 its name. At the upper part of the illustration is seen a portion 

 of the fore-foot of the Mole-cricket, and a better implement of 

 excavation can hardly be imagined. 



The reader will probably have noticed that in both these 

 creatures the spade, if we may so call it, is not a mere flat 

 plate, but is cleft into several points. It thus answers the 

 purpose of a fork as well as a spade, the several points serving 

 to break up the soil, and the flat palm to throw the earth 

 aside. 



This principle is carried out even more fully in the fore- 

 paw of the African Ant-bear, or Aard-vark (Orycteropus 

 Capensis), a figure of which is given in the illustration. This 

 animal is a great excavator, living in burrows of such dimen- 

 sions that the wild boar is in the habit of making its home 

 in them after they are deserted. 



Something more, however, than a digging apparatus is 

 needed for the Ant-bear. This animal feeds almost wholly on 

 the Termites, which it obtains by tearing down the walls of 



Q 2 



