210 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



could see exactly what it did. I got a glass-sided cage for 

 mole No. 2, put 2 or 3 ins. of soil in it and a handful of 

 leaves, and then took it into the sitting-room. The new mole, 

 which was a fine one, was then put in. He did not squeak 

 when touched, and indeed was surprisingly fearless. From 

 the first he would take worms from my fingers, and in all 

 respects was so bold as to give me but little respect for his 

 intelligence. The worm supply proving a problem, I gave 

 him small pieces of raw beef and afterwards bits of rabbit 

 liver. He ate a few little bits under pressure of hunger, but 

 it was obvious he did not like such fare. A mole I had later 

 on, known as No. 4, was not so particular, and was greedy 

 over pieces of mutton. Another time I tried No. 2 with a 

 bit of flesh and fat from the neck of a pheasant, which he 

 seemed to like. A chicken's head with feathers on it was 

 attacked with fury. He worried it so savagely that I was 

 able to raise him in the air hanging to the end of the neck. 

 Another, and to me totally unexpected, thing that he ate with 

 relish was cheese ! I dropped in some crumbs one day, and 

 to my astonishment, having smelt them over carefully, he 

 chewed them up. It is curious how attractive cheese is to 

 many mammals. It is the best bait for shrews, and I have 

 known tame badgers and a pet pine marten regard it as 

 the greatest of treats. After this I often, when hard pressed 

 for worms, gave the mole bits of cheese, also morsels of bread 

 soaked in milk, but he did not seem to like the latter fare. 

 I further experimented with slices of potato, as I wanted 

 to throw light on the statement of Mr G. Bolam l that he had 

 caught moles in ground where potatoes were being grown 

 with their stomachs full of potato-like substance. However, 

 my mole declined such diet, neither potatoes whole nor 

 potatoes sliced tempted him in the least, and I have never 

 found in the stomach of any mole I have examined the least 

 evidence that the animal had been living on vegetarian fare. 

 Fibres are occasionally to be found mixed with the mass of 

 chewed and semi-digested worms that the stomach always 

 contains, and in one instance I found a tightly packed oval 

 pellet of such fibres, 20 millimetres long by 15 wide, that 

 1 "Vegetarian Moles," in Country Life of 2nd September 1916. 



