THE LIVING WORLD. 
509 
to rat. If a stairway is to be ascended, the lower rat in effect turns a semi-som¬ 
ersault, and presents the egg to the rat on the step above. When a bottle, 
containing liquid, is to be plundered the rat uses its tail. In attempting to 
get at a jar, which could not be scaled, rats have been known to throw up 
mounds of plaster to the required height. 
The Bay Bamboo Rat ( Rhizomys sumatrensis ) is a reddish-brown, and 
even its incisors are enamelled in red. It is about the size of a half-grown 
rabbit and sports an egg-shaped head. It looks like a mole and is very destruc¬ 
tive to the bamboo crops. Its scientific name was given under a false impres¬ 
sion for its habitat is Malacca. It digs deep holes near streams where grass 
and the bamboo are found, but in its fondness for cultivated crops it will stray 
far from its subterranean home, and thus exposes itself to the retribution which 
the farmers love to inflict upon it. The hind feet being webbed to adapt them 
to life in wet and marshy regions, the grace and agility which distinguishes 
the bamboo rat as a wader or 
swimmer is lost when it has 
to run over ploughed fields or 
dry ground. Hence, while 
feasting upon the fruit of 
others’ labors, there comes the 
abhorred planter and cuts its 
thread of life, for although the 
creature is a foot and a half 
in length, it is powerless when 
deftly seized by its hind feet. 
Companies of men engage in 
the hunt, and, like the Indian 
of tradition, dash out the 
animal’s brains against the 
rocks. 
The Zemmi ( Spalax ty- 
phlus ) belongs to southern 
Russia. It is tailless, eyeless 
(at least externally), earless 
and yet it is keen of hearing. It is about three-quarters of a foot in length, 
has a head broader than its body, end of the nose clothed with a skin-case, and 
the nostrils underneath, short legs, and short, stout claws. Its hair is furry, 
dark brown, with ashen gray extremities, and it is a remarkable mining engineer. 
It keeps its tunnels connected, and every few yards makes an opening to the 
surface, building hillocks one or two feet in circumference and of corresponding 
height. Whether regarded as a“ freak of nature,” or as a wonderful adaptation 
for the life which it is required to live, it is equally noteworthy. 
The Lemmings, or Arctic Musk-rats, are so numerous in hyperborean 
regions as to have given rise to serious discussions as to whether they do not 
fall in showers from the clouds, as Jupiter visited Io. 
The Snowy Lemming ( Cuniculus torquatus) turns white in the winter sea¬ 
son, as though to secure greater protection by identifying itself with the fancies 
and freaks of the blithesome snow. In the summer time, on the contrary, it is 
white only on the tail and on the feet; its back.is black or blackish, and the rest of 
