UTILITY OF THE MOLE. 169 



trispinoso, pundatissimo; Ehjtris suhrngosis, nervis obsoletis duohus, sutures apicis 

 angulo siilmiucronato . 



Of a brown colour, the head, antennae, and mandibles pitchy. Head rngose, 

 deeply grooved in front, punctate behind. Antennae deeply serrated, extendino' 

 over the elytra. Mandibles at the base deeply punctured, with a small double 

 tooth on the outer margin towards the tip, inner margin smooth. Thorax 

 with three spines on each side curved upwards and backwards, the two at the 

 posterior angles small; minutely and thickly punctured with a slight keel running 

 down the middle. Elytra finely wrinkled, with two slight ridges extending from 

 the base nearly to the apex; and a third, short, and very indistinct towards 

 the margins at the base; apex at the suture slightly pointed. Tarsi slender. 



Length thirty-one lines. Hab: Ava, E. Indies. 



The specimen above described is a female, 



Glasgow, May, 18o4. 



UTILITY OF THE COMMON MOLE, {TALPA VULGARIS) 



BY J. MC'iNTOSH, ESQ. 

 {Continued from page oO.) 



The charges brought against the Mole, by the generality of horticulturists, 

 are equally as absurd as those we have already exposed in an agricultural 

 point of view. It is, no doubt, teasing to the temper of the enthusiastic florist, 

 to find, some morning, that this industrious little engineer has, during the night, 

 driven a tunnel through the centre of his fancy tulip-bed, and perhaps upheaved 

 a favourite prime bagnet or byblaimen; or in the kitchen garden, that he has 

 upheaved some few onions, carrots, or other seeds; still, if he had not done 

 so, some wireworm, grub, snail, or other noxious enemy, would have done him 

 double, nay a thousand times more injury. It is quite absurd to accuse him 

 of stealing acorns or other seeds. This charge against the unfortunate Mole 

 no doubt arose from BufFon, who asserts that in the year 1740 he planted 

 fifteen or sixteen acres of land with acorns, and that the greater part of them 

 were, in a little time, carried away by the Moles to their subterranean retreats; 

 in many of these, he says, were found half a bushel, and in others a bushel 

 of acorns. 



Now we are perfectly satisfied in our own minds, that if the great 

 Bufibn had minutely examined the point in question, he would have found 

 that, instead of the Mole being the thief, the real ones were rats and mice. 

 For the truth is, the Mole is exclusively, or nearly so, an animal feeder, he 

 does not object to a bird, a lizard, a mouse, or a frog, if it comes within his 

 reach; toads he rejects, even when famishing with hunger. In the extensive 

 gardens at Dalkeith there are two borders in the kitchen garden of equal 

 size; in one of these borders a Mole, for more than twelve months, took up 

 its abode: at one end of the border was a hole^ by which the Mole passed 



VOL. IV. Y 



