{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) fc 





LI 





The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 69.] 1917 [September. 



SOME NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE 

 MOLE IN CAPTIVITY. 



By Frances Pitt. 



There is a generally accepted idea that it is impossible to 

 keep a mole alive for long in captivity, but I am convinced 

 that the sole difficulty lies in the food supply, and that those 

 who have failed have done so only because they did not 

 realise the enormous appetites of these small creatures, so 

 the unfortunate captives have died of starvation. The mole 

 has such a rapid digestion that it cannot go many hours 

 without eating, even a night's fasting being fatal. Two 

 instances have come under my notice. In the first case a 

 workman who knew that I wanted a mole alive and unhurt, 

 found one when turning over some rubbish, caught it before 

 it could dig into the ground, and as it was too late in the day 

 to bring it to me, put it in a box, in which he also put some 

 soil to " make it comfortable-like." Next morning, at six 

 o'clock, the mole was not only lying dead on the top of the 

 earth, but was cold and stiff as well! In the second instance, 

 I gave a captive mole forty worms in the afternoon, and then 

 left it until the following morning, when I found the poor 

 creature was dead. Examination proved the stomach to be 

 perfectly empty, and it became obvious that the little glutton 

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