114 The Field Natiiralisfs Quarterly May 



The eyes are very small, and the lens is without a nucleus, 

 and without concentric structure. Light can pass, but it 

 can hardly form an inverted image, and would appear at 

 most as a tangle of lines. 



Some dogs are very quick at catching moles which are 

 working close to the surface of the ground, so also are 

 some cats. I once had a retriever which caught numbers 

 in this way. Moles possess a peculiar musky odour which, 

 when one is skinning them, is far from agreeable, and they 

 swarm with parasites. And as a final peculiarity I may 

 mention that I have never heard a mole utter any sound 

 except when injured or taken hold of. 



Norfolk Broads in Spring. 



By Rev. M. C H. Bird, M.A., M.B.O.U. 



It is now nearly a month since Lady-day, and so, in spite 

 of the penetrating keenness of the easterly wind, it must be 

 spring-time, although there are as yet but few signs of fresh 

 vegetation in the extensive stretch of marshes before us, 

 save where the adder-carrs are warmly aglow with sunlight, 

 reflected from their purple -grey buds and same -coloured 

 twigs of the previous year. There is a tinge of yellow too 

 in their expanded catkins, but not so conspicuous in the 

 distance as that arising from the "palm" of the sallow- 

 bushes. As yet there is no trace of greenery in the reed- 

 beds, and the sedges of last year's growth still protect and 

 hide, under a dense tangled mass of brown, the close-folded 

 spear-shaped leaflets which are waiting strength to thrust 

 themselves through their winter coverlet. The storms of 

 winter have whipped out all the chlorophyll from the pin- 

 rushes which once formed the carpets and candle-wicks of 

 our ancestors. People are still living who used to gather 

 and peel them for "rush-lights," and some of our parish- 

 ioners still exercise their right of cutting a thousand turves 

 or hovers from the common ; but the old open hearth is 

 practically a thing of the past, and the ubiquitous coal-cart 



