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THE COAST RAT, OR SAND MOLE. 
The common Mole Rat, which is also known by its Russian name of Slepez, is a native 
of Southern Russia, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Syria. Like the ordinary Mole, to which 
it bears no little external resemblance, it passes its existence in the subterranean tunnels which 
it excavates by means of its powerful claws. As it but seldom ventures into the light of day, 
it stands in no need of visual organs, but is compensated for their absence by the very large 
development of the organs of hearing. The place of the eyes is taken by two little round black 
specks, which lie under the fur-covered skin, so that even if they were sensitive to light, they 
would be unable to perceive the brightest rays of the noontide sun. The ears, however, are 
extremely large, and the hearing is exceedingly sensitive, so that the animal receives earlier 
information of danger through its sense of hearing than through that of sight, which latter 
faculty would indeed be useless in its dark abode. Sometimes the Slepez leaves the burrow 
and lies basking in the warm sunshine, but upon the least alarm, or unexpected sound, it 
plunges into its tunnel, and 
will not again make its 
appearance until it feels 
perfectly assured of safety. 
Should it be unexpect- 
edly attacked, it assumes 
an offensive attitude, and 
trusting to its delicate sense 
of hearing to inform it of 
the direction in which the 
foe is approaching, bites 
most savagely with its long 
chisel -like incisors. While 
engaged in combat, or while 
threatening its adversary, 
it utters a sharp crying 
snort at short intervals. 
The food of the Mole 
Rat is believed to be entirely of a vegetable nature, and it is in search of the various plants 
on which it feeds that it drives its long and complicated tunnels through the soil. It is 
especially fond of roots, more particularly preferring those of a bulbous character, but 
will also feed on grain and different fruits, and is said to lay up a store of provisions in a 
subterranean chamber connected with its burrow. The usual form of the Mole Rat’s habi- 
tation and hunting-ground may be easily imagined. A series of horizontal tunnels, or main 
roads, are driven through the ground at no great depth from the surface of the earth, and 
are connected with a number of chambers excavated at some depth, and with an endless 
variety of shallow passages which are made in the course of the animal’ s daily peregrina- 
tions in search of food. 
The Russian peasants have an idea, that if any one will have the courage to seize a Slepez 
in his bare hands, permit the animal to bite him, and then squeeze it to death between his 
fingers, he will ever afterwards possess the power of curing goitre by the touch of his hands. 
The general color of the Slepez is a very light brown, slightly tinged with red in some parts, 
and fading into an ashen-gray in others. Its total length is about ten or eleven inches, and the 
tail is wanting. The head is broad, flat on the crown, and terminates abruptly at the muzzle. 
The feet are short, and the claws small. 
This animal is presumed to be the Blind Mole of the ancient Greek authors, and if so, 
affords another of the many instances where the so-called errors of the old writers on natural 
history have proved, on further acquaintance, to be perfectly correct. The specific name 
typhlus is a Greek word, signifying blind, and has been given to the Slepez on account of its 
absolute deprivation of external eyes. ' 
The incisor teeth of the Coast Rat, or Sahd Mole, are even larger in proportion than 
those of the preceding animal, and those of the upper jaw are marked by a groove running 
MOLE RAT, OR SLEPEZ . — Spalax typhlus. 
