be procured, and never, I believe, comes out of the ground. It throws
up at the mouth of its burrows hillocks of earth like those of the
mole, but smaller. Considerable tracts of country are so completely
undermined by these animals, that horses in passing over, sink above
their fetlocks. The tucutucos appear, to a certain degree, to be
gregarious: the man who procured the specimens for me had caught six
together, and he said this was a common occurrence. They are nocturnal
in their habits; and their principal food is the roots of plants, which
are the object of their extensive and superficial burrows. This animal
is universally known by a very peculiar noise which it makes when
beneath the ground. A person, the first time he hears it, is much
surprised; for it is not easy to tell whence it comes, nor is it
possible to guess what kind of creature utters it. The noise consists
in a short, but not rough, nasal grunt, which is monotonously repeated
about four times in quick succession: [6] the name Tucutuco is given in
imitation of the sound. Where this animal is abundant, it may be heard
at all times of the day, and sometimes directly beneath one's feet.
When kept in a room, the tucutucos move both slowly and clumsily, which
appears owing to the outward action of their hind legs; and they are
quite incapable, from the socket of the thigh-bone not having a certain
ligament, of jumping even the smallest vertical height. They are very
stupid in making any attempt to escape; when angry or frightened they
utter the tucutuco. Of those I kept alive several, even the first day,
became quite tame, not attempting to bite or to run away; others were a
little wilder.
The man who caught them asserted that very many are invariably found
blind. A specimen which I preserved in spirits was in this state; Mr.
Reid considers it to be the effect of inflammation in the nictitating
membrane. When the animal was alive I placed my finger within half an
inch of its head, and not the slightest notice was taken: it made its
way, however, about the room nearly as well as the others. Considering
the strictly subterranean habits of the tucutuco, the blindness, though
so common, cannot be a very serious evil; yet it appears strange that
any animal should possess an organ frequently subject to be injured.
Lamarck would have been delighted with this fact, had he known it, when
speculating [7] (probably with more truth than usual with him) on the
gradually _acquired_ blindness of the Asphalax, a Gnawer living under
ground, and of the Proteus, a reptile living in dark caverns filled
with water; in both of which animals the eye is in an almost
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