THE MOLE 335 



laid bare. The earth from their borings is generally heaped 

 at the end of a new run, a sign they had begun to work 

 vertically downwards, and perhaps, too, to allow themselves 

 space for turning round, just as, doubtless, the upper cir- 

 cular gallery of the cradle is for the purpose of allowing the 

 workmen to beat that extraordinary hard roof to the actual 

 nest — that upper arch of the central globe. On the uplands, 

 on the other hand, they will work down eighteen inches in 

 depth, and turn up sandy gravel. But in either case a fresh 

 nest has a crumbly-looking heap over it. 



These earth-heaps over the nurseries also serve another 

 purpose — they are stocked with worms ; for the mother 

 suckles the young for a month or five weeks, until they are 

 old enough to work for themselves. Should you approach 

 a nest when the young are large enough, they are sure to 

 hear you, and run off, and you find but the warm nest ; 

 for they are either very quick of hearing, or feel every 

 vibration. 



Towards the end of April you may find young smoke- 

 coloured moles with unsightly pink snouts — three, four, or 

 five to a nest — and so on till the middle of May. Then 

 there is a pause, and a second family is sometimes born in 

 August. 



They work at all hours of the day and night. There is 

 no surety when they will work, but generally after rain. 

 Superstition in the Broadland says they work only at 

 8 A.M., noon, and 4 P.M. Others say the Jacks begin to 

 work between nine and ten o'clock ; others that females 

 work at eight and four ; others that both work all day 

 long ; and yet others that the Jacks leave work on fine 

 sunshiny days at I P.M., and "it beant no use ter look arter 

 them when it hev come one by the day." But all this " I 

 must leave," as they say in Norfolk. 



They work the earth past themselves in the run; but how 

 they raise these heaps is a mystery to me, especially the 

 large breeding heaps. They will not " skim " (work just 



