During a week's collecting in the vicinity of McHenry, in Mc- 

 Henry county, not a trace of a mole or of mole work was seen, and 

 apparently the farmers were quite unacquainted with either. More 

 recently, however, the presence of moles in that town has been re- 

 ported. Probably there are other sections of the state in which they 

 are rare or lacking, but we have no authentic record of such. 



The burrows of the mole are almost always excavated, not by 

 bringing the dirt to the surface, but by pushing it aside. The method 

 seems to be as follows: The head is lowered and retracted — the flexi- 

 bility of the neck permitting this — the fore paws are thrust forward 

 in front of the nostrils, and by a sort of swimming motion the earth 

 is pushed aside, the head at the same time being advanced and raised. 

 The flexible snout is kept in continual motion, probably for exploring 

 rather than for loosening the soil, as was once thought. The mounds 

 of dirt thrown out are usually from burrows moderately deep. Pre- 

 sumably this, is done only when the animal finds it difficult to dispose 

 of the dirt otherwise. However, in central Illinois, I have never been 

 able to correlate the presence or absence of such mounds with hard- 

 ness of the soil. Possibly they are rather an indication of the depth 

 of the excavations. When present they are in general at the top of 

 vertical shafts ascending, not directly from the main tunnel, but from 

 a short lateral one. Plow the earth is brought to the surface is not 

 known. 



Audubon and Bachman, in their great work on the quadrupeds of 

 North America, mention the finding of two nests with young, one 

 containing five and the other nine, and this observation seems to be 

 the sole basis for all statements on this point made by most writers 

 since. Kennicott's infomiant who reported a gravid female in Feb- 

 ruary with two young "clothed with hair" and about to be brought 

 forth must have made some mistake. There are four young moles in 

 the Laboratory collection averaging over lOO mm. in, length, but they 

 are still neai'ly hairless. The result of an examination of all females 

 in our collection accompanied with data of capture is shown in the 

 table on page 9. 



These observations seem to indicate one litter a year, brought 

 forth in the latter part of April or early in May. All data available 

 for this state sugg'est that the average number in a litter is nearer 

 three to six than "from five to nine." In No. 38347 all six of the 

 teats bore evidence of being used. 



