112 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly May 



and the roots and stalks of grasses, generally those of the 

 dog-grass, known in the country as "wicks" and to science 

 as Tritictmi repens. The leaves form a warm lining, and are 

 often bitten into small pieces. I have never found more 

 than four young ones in a nest myself, but I have occasion- 

 ally heard of five. When about half-grown these sleek little 

 animals are very pretty. They keep close to the nest at 

 first, seldom straying far from home. They are fond of 

 coming above-ground when they get a chance and every- 

 thing is quite quiet, but when suddenly surprised cannot 

 of course burrow out of sight either so quickly or to such a 

 depth as the old ones. I once kept a mole alive in a tub 

 half filled with earth for some weeks ; but the animal was 

 such a ravenous feeder, and required such a tremendous 

 quantity of worms to satisfy its hunger, that I was by no 

 means sorry to let it go. 



For some years I have been collecting varieties of the 

 mole, and have accumulated a small but very interesting 

 collection of white, sandy-coloured, piebald, blue, and slaty 

 specimens ; but I have never yet succeeded in obtaining one 

 spotted or dappled with white, though I have seen one or two 

 such in other collections. Now, it is often said that these 

 varieties are found only on certain geological formations, but 

 I think that this has very little to do with the distribution, 

 as my specimens are from the most varied districts. One 

 curious thing I have noted, namely, that where one variety 

 is taken another may be looked for with a fairly good chance 

 of success — so much so, that I know of one place in Wales 

 from which sandy-coloured specimens have been sent to 

 many museums throughout the country. On the other 

 hand, in other districts where thousands of moles have been 

 caught in the course of years, not one single departure from 

 the ordinary-coloured type has ever been noticed. 



The names by which the mole is known in Yorkshire are 

 — moudies, moudiewarps, moldards, and nunkeys. From 

 the last name the hillocks are termed " nunkey-tumps." 

 Some years ago there was a dispute about some land in 

 a certain locality, and several old fellows were put into 

 the witness-box. One of them on being asked by a very 

 well-known barrister — since dead — what he knew about the 



