{Authors are respotisible for nomenclature used.) 





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The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 34.] 1914 [October 



EDITORIAL. 



The food of the Common Mole forms the subject of an 

 article recently published by Philip Bruce White, of the 

 University College of North Wales, Bangor. 1 This paper 

 summarises the results of the examination of one hundred 

 stomachs which were taken from animals captured in two 

 localities (fifty from each) in Wales. Full details of the 

 stomach-contents are given in the table which concludes the 

 article, and from these it may be gathered that this familiar 

 insectivore is of much service in clearing the soil of injurious 

 insects. The prevalent opinion that earthworms form its 

 principal diet is confirmed, but leather jackets (larvae of 

 Tipula or " Daddy-longlegs ") were found in 87 per cent, of 

 the stomachs, and the average number in each stomach was 

 5-4. The author estimates that a single Mole would destroy 

 in six months no fewer than 3650 of these destructive grubs. 

 Wireworms (larvae of "Click-Beetles") occurred in 41 per 

 cent, of the stomachs, but on the other hand centipedes, 

 which are to be reckoned useful, were found in 50 per cent. 

 The list of creatures on which the Mole was proved to feed 

 is a very miscellaneous one, and seems to indicate that the 



1 Journ. Board of Agriculture, August 1914, pp. 401-407. 



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