298 
THE MAMMALS OE EGYPT. 
there were many branches in one system. One passage measured over thirty metres in 
length, measurements being taken from what might be called the fortress of the animal, 
which was excavated a metre in depth beneath the surface, and consisted of three 
separate small chambers, two of which w'ere filled with the bulbs of some species of 
lily stored as food. Sixty-eight bulbs were taken out of these two chambers; the 
smallest bulbs measured 2 cm. in their greatest diameter, whilst others were considerably 
larger. One of the three chambers w’as empty and was said by the Arabs to be the 
sleeping-quarters of this mole-rodent. Similar storehouses were found in every other 
burrow opened, and each was filled with the same species of bulb, the presence of no 
other kind of food being observed. As this blind rat is s^id never to appear on the 
surface, the long burrows are doubtless constructed by it in search of food, to which it 
is probably guided by its acute sense of smell, and when a bulb is met with it is 
dragged into the passage and then to the storehouse. As these animals were being 
dug out we noticed these bulbs in situ. However, it was impossible to determine 
the species in absence of leaf and flower. 
Our excursion to Maryut resulted in the capture of three living animals. These 
were with the least possible delay forwarded to England from Alexandria ; but they 
died on the voyage, owing to the sand in their cages being impregnated with salt, 
which began to deliquesce in the moist atmosphere of the Mediterranean. Fortunately 
they were preserved as museum specimens, and are described in the tables of 
measurements. Later on, a second venture was more successful and two arrived at my 
house in London, where one lived under observation over three months. Meanwhile 
the artist Mr. P. J. Smit made the coloured sketch which is represented on the 
accompanying Plate. Bulbs were supplied to the Spalax out of the ordinary garden 
after the supply from Maryut was exhausted. It took them one by one, partially 
eating some and hiding the others in the soil; it apparently throve, but one morning 
the food was observed not to have been touched, and as another day similarly 
passed, a search beneath was made and the animal was found to be dead. This 
is the specimen which furnished my description and is No. 140 of the tables of 
measurements (pp. 293-4). 
Eear-Admiral Blomfield, Port Commissioner at Alexandria, informed me that four 
different kinds of grape-hyacinth occur at Maryut, one flowering in August, the 
others in March and April. Next spring, when we were again in Egypt, at Cairo, 
Professor Sickenberger brought us a plant in flower direct from Maryut, which he had 
plucked in the end of March. He called it Muscari holymanni, Heldreich, which he 
observed was recently united to Muscari comosum. Miller, the musk or grape>- 
hyacinth. 
Of the bulbs we had taken to England with us in June 1892 we had distributed a 
few to various friends in hopes that plants might be reared to show the flower. The 
