6o 



BRITISH MAMMALS 



ist finger. 



PrepoUex. 



Hand of Mole. 



Talpa europisa. The Common Mole 



This animal is about 6| in. long, and of this length the 

 thick bristly tail occupies nearly i-J- in. The body is almost 



cylindrical, and there is no clearly 

 defined neck. The front limbs are 

 remarkably modified. The elbow of 

 a mole's arm is contained within the 

 body, and the arm only protrudes 

 from the wrist joint. This and the 

 lower part of the arm are deflected 

 in such a way that the palm of the 

 hand is turned outwards and side- 

 ways. The bones of the hand are 

 remarkably expanded, and on the 

 inner or " thumb " side there is a 

 flattened bone that might well be 

 the prepollex,^ which looks, in fact, like a false thumb. The upper 

 arm bone, or humerus, is extraordinarily curved and shortened. 



The eyes in the Common Mole are not, 

 as is often supposed, absolutely non-existent. 

 It is thought, nevertheless, by the most 

 recent authority on the subject, Mr. Lionel 

 E. Adams ^ (quoting also from Saint Hilaire 

 and Mr. Trevor-Battye) that an adult mole 

 is practically blind. Saint Hilaire, however, 

 thought it was extremely short-sighted. 

 There is no doubt that when the extremely 

 Right Foot of Mole, minute eye of the mole is exposed it has 



•^ It is a moot point whether the first air-breathing vertebrate, which 

 grew by degrees from out of a fish into an amphibian and was the parent 

 form of all land vertebrates, was six-fingered or five-fingered. There is a 

 constantly recurring tendency, throughout mammals (at any rate), for a sixth 

 finger to make its appearance, preceding the thumb. This is termed the 

 prepollex. 



- A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Mole (Manchester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society, 1902). 



