The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-05
ANIMALS UNDERGROUND.
BURRCW Wing HABIT An ACQUIRED
ONE FOE MOST SPECIES.
Creatures That Have Adapted Themselves
to New Condition with Loss of Health
Curious Lore About Subterranean AMI
nnasa

JhAIss
An interesting find of buried treas
ure has just been credited to a mole.
Coins were seen shining in the earth of
a freshly cast-up molehill at Penicuick,
near Edinburgh, and a search showed
that the mole had driven his gallery
through board of ancient coins of the
date of Edward I.
Men of all countries seem agreed in
regarding the, work of animals under
ground as something quite normal and
commonplace. Perhaps the best in
stance of this was the view long held
by the Ostiaks of North Siberia that
the mammoths whose bodies and bones
they found embedded in the frozen soil
were "only" gigantic moles which
were unlucky enough to come too near
the top, and so were frozen! The facts
are, however, in very strong contradic-
ton to this view of the subterranean
life of animals. Life underground and in
the dark is absolutely contrary to the
normal habits, tastes and structure Of
almost all animals except the very few,
like the common moles, tuco-tuco, and
the marsupial Sandwiches, which OBJ
tain their food below the earth surface
as diving birds catch fish below the sea
surface. 1t is almost an inversion of
their normal way OF life, and is proba-
bly, due, in the opinion of writer in
" The Spectator to some such COM
pulsion as has also forced many ami
mails to become nocturnal. Nor is it
doubtful that If once this necessity
were removed their tendency would be
to abandon this unnatural life and re-
turn to the regions of light.
How strong the pressure must have
been which forced them underground
may be gathered from the list of Eng
lish terrestrial mammals. Twelve Of
these are bats, but of the remaining
twenty mine no less than sixteen, or
more than half, live either wholly or
partly underground. The list includes
the fox, three shrews, the mole, the
blbSSl. tliS otlCl, lllltG SpCtltc VI iHlCt,
two rats, three voles, and the rabbit.
Besides, there are several species of
birds, as widely different in habit as
the stormy petrels, sand-martins, puff
fins, sheldrake ducks, and the king
fisher, which for a time live in holes
excavated in the earth. To abandon
the sun, to bask in whose rays is to
most animals one of the most agree
able of physical enjoyments, is an al
most greater sacrifice than the relin-
quishment of fresh air. Yet the sacri-
flee is made. and the creatures, though
not without occasional suffering and
loss of health directly attributable to
this cause, have succeeded in adapting
themselves with great success to the
new conditions. 1t might we'll be that
the measure of this success decreased
in proportion to the completeness with
which the different species have adopt
! ed the underground habit and aband-
| oned light and air. But in normal con-
| ditions this is not the case. The fox
which we take to be the last of Eng
| lish mammals to become q turnover
and dweller in ho1es-largely owing to
! the increase of fo$-hunting and multi
| plcation of packs of hounds-is an anil
NAL which spends as little time there
as 1t can help. and has never ceased to
suffer in health from the change. The
earths become tainted, the foxes con-
tract mango and the spread of the fatal
| disease has increased yearly as they
have become more subterranean, and
| by taking their food into the holes
| have converted them into larders as
well as sleeping places.
| How most of the burrowing animals
| find life endurable at all is difficult to
discover. No one who has seen GOLFERS
| coming for their lamps and about to
descend into the pit can have failed tc
note the marks Of physical strain ex-
hibited by all--from old men to boys
AS each man or lad comes up and
shouts the number of his lamp the
harsh. loud voices. the wrought
| lines of the face, and the general air OF
tension show that, however well salts
fled the pitman is with his calling, he
at least is not yet adapted to the I'M
foreground life. But burrowing ami
mails are among the merriest of the
merry; there are few creatures more
full of gayety and buoyant spirits thar
a prairie-dog, or even sandhill rab-
bit; and we have only once seen an ami
NAL grimy from attempted burrowing
and that was an opossum which mis-
took chimney for a hole in hollow
tree. Some have coats so close and fine
that sand runs off them like water doe:
from feathers, others have "shiverins
| muscles" by which they can shake
| their Jackets without taking them off
| Rats, however do object to some forms
Of dust. and will not burrow in it. Al
old Suffold rat-catcher always laid ash
es in the runs made by them beneath
| brick floors. His theory on the subjec
was that the ashes Jared to maxi
them shuttle"
But even If earth, dust and clay d.
not adhere to the animals coats whel
burrowing, the danger, or at least thu
discomfort, to the delicate surface o
the eye would seem to afford an aInos
constant source of uneasiness to Great
ures burrowing in loose SOIL But tn
eyes Of most burrowing creatures ar
by no means protected against sucl
damage. If the rat and the rabbit hal
horn plate over their eyes, as
snake has, or everhanging eyebrow
and deeply sun orbits, the modification
would be at once explained by evolu
ton; but they exhibit no such modif1
cation whatever. On the contrary, bot
of them have prominent, rather starin
eyes, without protection, and no eye
lashes to speak of. We believe that
just as divers learn to keep their eye
open under water without feeling pair