SPALAX ^GYPTIACUS. 
297 
M. Letoiirneux occupied the position of a Judge of the Mixed Tribunal Courts in 
Alexandria for some years previous to 1880, and he took a great interest in natural 
history pursuits. He found the Spalax at Maryut in 1877 in much the same locality 
as I did in 1892. It is much to be regretted that a description of the animal was not 
given by M. A, Milne-Eclwards. 
The History of the finding of the Spalax. 
On the dry, hilly, or rather low undulating land near Lake Maryut, seven or eight 
miles to the west of Alexandria, there is a group of humble dwellings, chiefly 
inhabited by Bedouins, who gain a precarious livelihood from the cultivation of barley 
and other crops wherever a level spot occurs. The land consists of an exceedingly 
sandy loam, but never having the pure sandy characteristics of the desert; and in 
similar soil between Kami eh ^ and Mandara we had noticed that vines were beins? 
cultivated to a considerable extent. The wine of Maryut or Lake Mariotis was 
famous in olden times. 
We had expected at this season, the month of April, to have found fair crops of 
barley, and the district gay with the flowers of Asphodel and other liliaceous plants, 
but there were only stunted patches of barley and the withered stems of Asphodel 
amidst the burnt-up grass. The rainfall of winter and spring, scant and uncertain at 
all times, had completely failed, and the surface of the soil was perfectly hard. 
However, it was noticeable here and there that the soil was marked by numerous little 
heaps of earth thrown out by some burrowing animal, many of these being quite fresh. 
Enquiries being made on the spot elicited the fact that the Arabs knew of a rodent 
inhabiting these burrows which they asserted was perfectly blind 2. As their word 
required confirmation, a promise of good reward was given, with the result that a 
living specimen was brought to me in a couple of days to the hotel in Alexandria. A 
personal visit was next arranged, and men were engaged to open some of the burrows 
and find out whether they were tenanted before my wife and I should arrive. This 
was ascertained by their observing after a time whether any fresh earth was thrown 
out. On our arrival we found that the Arabs had marked four such runs, and 
they immediately set to work to dig them up, one after the other. The runs were 
found to extend over a wide area, and in some parts of their course they w’ere most 
intricate. In two of those opened, as many as three passages were found, all going off 
close together from the same side of the run, and some of these branched off again, for 
^ [This is interesting in view of Dr. Nehring’s mention of an old specimen of Spalax in the Berlin 
Museum, labelled “ Eamleh, near Alexandria.”—G. S. A.] 
^ The name given to the animal by the natives, ‘ Abu Amma,’ is literally “ Father of the'blind,” and may 
be translated as “ truly or essentially blind.” 
2 Q 
