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VERTEBRATA. 
able creatures in the whole circle of mammalogy. This is the Zemmi or Zemni, S. tpphlus, the 
Mus typhlus of Pallas ; the Podolian Marmot of Pennant ; the Blind Bat 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 poppj^-seeds, are hid beneath the skin, so that the animal is 
entirely destitute of the sense of sight! There are 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 the 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 visiou, the Russians name Slepez or the Blind, and 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 Chmrophyllum. 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 on 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 its 
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 Roesk, b;it not in the sandy parts. 
It is supposed that two other species exist, but they are not authentically described. 
SHOET-TAILED FIELD-MICE. 
THE MURIENS, OR RATS AND 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. 
Genus LEMMING: Lemmus. — Of this there are several species, the most celebrated of 
which is the Lapland Lemming, L. Norvegicus. This is confined to Lapland and Norway. It is 
