The Voyage Of The Beagle By Charles Darwin





































































 -   They are very stupid in making any attempt to
escape; when angry or frightened they utter the tucutuco.
Of those - Page 79
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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 rudimentary state, and is covered by a tendinous membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is extraordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt whether it is connected with the true optic nerve; its vision must certainly be imperfect, though probably useful to the animal when it leaves its burrow.

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