Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/671

Rh for this kind of investigation. The tracks of the animal are then preserved in the ground, while the soil is at other times too friable to retain any mark. The Notoryctes is essentially a burrower, and never comes out from under the sand except to run a few feet in a slow and tortuous gait, dragging its belly along the ground. It walks, clinching the outer edges of its claws in the ground, leaving a triple, often interrupted, sinuous track, the lateral lines of which are drawn by the feet, the middle line by the tail, on which the animal supports itself by beating it on the ground. The track resembles those of some Australian lizards, which Prof. Stirling was apt at first to mistake for them.

The Notoryctes burrows obliquely in the sand, going two or three inches under the ground, and never betraying its passage except by a slight undulation of the soil. In digging it uses its conical nose, which is protected by a horny plate, and the strong, mattock-shaped claws of its fore feet. The hind feet, which are wider and spade-shaped, throw the sand back so that no trace is left of the tunnel which it hollows. It comes to the surface a few yards farther on, and then buries itself again, all without making any noise. It is prodigiously agile and swift, a property on which Mr. Benham, who lived for some time at Idracowra, says: "Everybody here can tell you how soon one of these animals will get away by digging in the sand. I had brought a live one to the house and we were talking of its agility in digging. Mr. Stokes desired to see it at work. After spading and turning over the ground near the house, we set the animal down; I held it in my hands till it was nearly hidden, and then tried to overtake it by scratching the ground behind it, but it was quicker than I. I took a shovel and tried to find it, but without success. Another man came to my help with a second shovel, and also a native woman used to digging in the ground with her hands. But all three of us could not find it."

The Notoryctes are hard to keep alive, even if large tubs full of sand are provided. Night and day can be heard the slight sound they make in digging in this friable soil. They would not touch the ants which Mr. Stirling gave them, although ants were found in their stomachs. On the other hand, they readily ate the large white grubs of long-horned beetles and Lepidoptera; one "of them even ate bread, but it died the next day. They did not try to bite when taken in the hand. The natives call them oor-quamata, and seem to have a superstitious fear of them, arising perhaps from the animal's being almost unknown. They have never seen the young ones. The intestines of different individuals dissected by Mr. Stirling contained ants and other insects.

At first sight, the animal looks very much like the Chrysochlores, or golden moles of the Cape, but differs from them by