212 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



The day after this mole (No. 2) was captured he began 

 to make a bed by drawing around him the leaves I had 

 provided, and as time went on this nest grew bigger 

 and bigger until he had gathered quite a pile of leaves. 

 Sometimes when hungry he would upset his bed in his 

 frantic rushes about the cage, but as soon as he had fed 

 he would rearrange it nicely. I watched him one evening 

 when he was busy at the task. He sat in the middle of 

 the nest, from which he stretched out and pulled in all 

 the leaves he could reach. First his pink nose appeared 

 here and then there, and each time a leaf rustled on to 

 the heap. As far as I could see he did not use his hands 

 at all, but depended entirely on his mouth in gathering 

 and arranging the stuff. Sometimes he fetched material 

 from the opposite end of the cage, but he evidently pre- 

 ferred to sit in his nest and pull to him the leaves that 

 were near. 



All my moles preferred leaves to grass for bed-making. 

 When both were supplied, the leaves were taken first and 

 the grass last, but even the latter was eventually used up. 

 In a wild state this preference is no less marked, for an 

 examination of the nest contained in each fortress will 

 show that in the majority of cases the bed is made of leaves, 

 which in some instances must have been carried quite a 

 long way. ' 



When the mole had placed them to his satisfaction and 

 was well covered, he curled himself up into a ball and went 

 to sleep. He then felt like a ball of warm silky velvet, 

 but like the former and subsequent moles, he resented 

 being touched, and would remonstrate with an energetic 

 kick, but never attempted to bite. He slept soundly, 

 and often made a curious grunting squeak, which I con- 

 cluded was a form of snoring. He was easily alarmed 

 by noise, and any loud unaccustomed sound would send him 

 underground. Yet he soon learnt to associate knocking 

 on the glass, my voice, and the rattling of the worm tin 

 with food. The minute he heard any of these sounds 

 he came scuttling out of his nest to see what he could 

 get. If not disturbed he came out for food and exercise 



