128 Kansas Academy of Science. 



scarcely necessary to add, however, that these supplies are not al- 

 ways equally accessible. In summer, when the soil is wet with re- 

 cent rains the mole plows along very near the surface, extending 

 his runways rapidly and gathering in a harvest of insects and 

 worms, sotae of which have also come nearer the surface under 

 these conditions. In dry periods or during portions of the winter 

 season the mole must range deeper, for his prey has likewise found 

 retreat farther down in the soil. 



I have not attempted to compute the actual percentages of each 

 article of food in the list of twenty or more kinds given in the table. 

 Such figures would be mere approximations at best. The end in 

 view in the examination of each stomach was to discover what 

 kinds of creatures or substances it contained and, by noting repeti- 

 tion of similar parts of these organisms, how many of each kind. 



While plant fibers or rootlets show up in forty-three cases, in no 

 case was the amount of identijiahle jplant tissue more than might 

 have heen taken in incidental to the ingestion of other food. In 

 many of the stomachs there was a considerable residue after re- 

 peated washings, filterings and eliminations of the identifiable sub- 

 stances. This residue undoubtedly consisted largely of soil from 

 the intestines of earthworms and finely comminuted animal and, 

 perhaps, plant tissues. Even though starch, sugar or cellulose 

 might be detected by chemical analysis, there would be no means 

 of telling how much of this might have come from the digestive 

 tracts of the insects taken as food. 



Six stomachs contained fragments of plant tissue which may 

 have been parts of the seed coat of corn, but resembled very closely 

 thin bark taken from plant roots. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH CAPTIVE MOLES. 



It is a difficult matter to keep a mole any considerable length of 

 time in captivity. Altogether I have had more than a score under 

 observation for a short time, but seldom managed to keep any of 

 them alive for more than a day or two. Either fright and worry 

 or lack of proper food in sufficient quantity soon terminated the 

 life of each captive. I have always kept them in tubs or boxes 

 with a layer of earth several inches deep on the bottom. They 

 were supplied with water and with food of several kinds, some of 

 which they would eat readily. One individual survived for nearly 

 two weeks and seeaied to grow fat and sleek under the care we 

 gave him. I think he finally died of too much kindness. 



These imprisoned moles had insatiable appetites, eating raven- 

 ously bits of beefsteak and large numbers of earthworms. When 



