April, 1922 habits of the common mole 165 



smell under these conditions. The nose is usually in motion, 

 but it is my belief that it is through a sense of touch rather 

 than through a sense of smell that the nose is most useful in 

 food getting when the food taken is alive and has the power 

 of motion. 



I have found their method of eating earthworms interesting. 

 Small worms like Ilelodrilus Joetidus (Savigny) and Helodrilus 

 caliginosus (Savigny) are eaten entire, but larger worms like 

 Lumhriciis terrestris (Linnaeus) are torn to pieces with the 

 claws. A mole may work several minutes upon a large worm, 

 tearing it into strips and short sections, rolling it about with 

 the front feet and the mouth, thus getting the parts of the 

 worm almost free from the ingested earth before eating them. 



Whenever I have offered captive moles any of the insects 

 or insect larvae commonly found in the soil, they ate them 

 greedily. Beetle larvae, ants, maimed flies, and small Crustacea 

 were all eaten. Large beetles such as Lachnosterna and 

 Lucanus were also eaten, but the wing covers and hard parts 

 of the exoskeleton were generally refused. Prof. E. L. Mosley 

 has found that captive moles refuse wooly insect larvae, adult 

 Colorado potato beetles and their larvae. Analysis of stomachs 

 of moles show a preponderance of earth worms, a large per- 

 centage of larvae of Lachnosterna in season, various Carabidae, 

 and insect larvae of different sorts. The most noticeable 

 insect larvae were those of the Elateridae, no doubt due to the 

 fact that their tough bodies resist mastication more than the 

 soft bodies of other insect larvae. In the stomachs were also 

 found insect pupae, earthworm egg cases, grains of oats, corn 

 and grass. One mole taken from a clover field in December 

 had 95% of the stomach contents made up of small ants, and 

 since the ants were all of one species, this indicates that moles 

 are given to plundering ant hills. 



Grass found in the stomach was at first thought to have 

 been introduced accidentally until a captive mole was found to 

 eat grass, making as high as one-fourth of a meal upon fresh 

 lawn clippings. This led to further experiments with wild 

 and captive moles to find out what vegetable food they might 

 take. It was shown, to the author's satisfaction at least, that 

 moles are guilty in some cases of eating sprouted corn and in 

 rare instances of eating roots and tubers. Moles in captivity, 

 when short of water, ate Irish potatoes regularly, and would 



