TALPA ; OR, REMARKS ON THE HABITS OF THE MOLE. 59 



the Meadow Mice were gone — doubtless fallen a prey to 

 their enemy, the Weasel. I seem to remember a mole- 

 catcher having told me that he had caught a Weasel in a 

 trap set for the Mole, but think it is not conclusive evidence 

 that the Stoat or Weasel kill and devour Moles : their 

 flesh gives a repugnant odour. 



The Rev. J. G. Wood, in his "Illustrated Natural History," 

 says, "The Weasel is said to kill and eat Moles; and this 

 idea is strengthened by the fact that Weasels have more 

 than once been captured in Mole traps. These unfortunate 

 animals were evidently snared in the act of traversing the 

 same passages as the Mole, but whether their object was the 

 slaughter of the original excavators is not clearly ascer- 

 tained." 



The traps used for the destruction of Moles are of three 

 or four different kinds. The most common are the usual 

 steel traps, with two handles and serrated prongs, kept apart 

 by a plate, and the springe fixed in the ground and bent at 

 one end, so often seen in the country. Another kind is a 

 deep box, which is placed in a hedgerow, or bank, after it 

 has been cut away transversely to a sufficient depth ; and 

 fixing this pitlike box underneath, the main run is then 

 connected by a wooden trapdoor, through which the animal 

 is obliged to pass, and thus falls into the box below, and 

 must die a cruel death. 



There is one point to which I would draw your attention ; 

 it is the intuitive knowledge possessed by the Mole respect- 

 ing the changes of weather. It is intuitive, as it has not 

 the power of reasoning. I have frequently noticed the 

 afternoons previous to a hard frost, and again at the begin- 

 ning of a. thaw, that the Moles are very active, and are 

 busily throwing up the earth. Probably it is because at 

 those times the worms and insects begin to be in motion, 



