CHOLER ; Arabic, khulcl ; Lev..
xi. 29, in our version, weasel '). Although the similarity of sound in names is an unsafe ground to depend upon when it is applied to specific animals, still, the Hebrew and' Syriac appearing likewise to imply creeping into, creeping under neath by burrowing—characteristics most obvious. in moles—and the Arabic denomination being un doubted, chafed may be assumed to indicate the above animal,. in preference to tinsemeth, in conformity with the opinion of Bochart, is referred to the chameleon. This conclusion is the more to be relied on as the animal is rather common in Syria, and in some places abundant. Zoologists have considered the particular species to be the .alga Europcza, which, under the name of the common mole, is so well known as not to re quire a more particular description. The ancients represented the mole to have no eyes ; which assertion later scientific writers believed they had disproved by spewing our species to be possessed , of these organs, though exceedingly small. Never
theless, recent observations have proved that a species, in other respects scarcely, if at all, to be distinguished from the common, is totally destitute of eyes, and consequently has received the name of Talpa caxa. It is to be found in Italy, and pro bably extends to the East, instead of the Eztropwa. Moles must not, however, be considered as form ing a part of the Rodent order, whereof all the families and genera are provided with strong incisor teeth, like rats and squirrels, and therefore in tended for subsisting chiefly on grain and nuts ; they are, on the contrary, supplied with a great number of small teeth, to the extent of twenty-two in each jaw—indicating a partial regimen ; for they feed on worms, larvae, and under-ground in sects, as well as on roots, and thus belong to the insectivorous order ; which brings the application of the name somewhat nearer to carnivora and its received interpretation, weasel.'—C. H. S.