INSECT-EATING MAMMALS 6i 



some power of vision, and is at any rate sensitive to light. 

 What is remarkable is, according to observations made by 

 several persons, including the present writer, that, although under 

 normal circumstances the eye is rendered quite invisible by 

 being completely covered with hair, the mole can at will cause 

 this fine fur round the eye to radiate, thus leaving the eye 

 exposed. In the accompanying picture I have painted a mole 

 with the eye thus exposed to sight. The eye of the young mole 

 is more developed, and larger in the foetus and in the newly-born 

 young. 



The mole has four pairs of mammas, or teats. There is a 

 curious point about the external genitalia of the mole which 

 requires some notice and explanation. As in the spotted hyasna 

 and one or two other mammals, the outward appearance of males 

 and females is absolutely similar to a superficial observer — that 

 is to say, all moles appear to be males. In these Insectivores, 

 as in a good many forms of this group, the testes are abdominal, 

 and the long clitoris of the female exactly simulates the male 

 preputium. It is only during the short breeding season that 

 any difference in the sexes can be determined.^ 



There are no external ears in the mole. The fur is plush-like 

 in appearance. The individual hairs are very fine and silky. 

 They are short, and are set vertically in the skin, and do not 

 lie in a sloping direction. Their arrangement, therefore, is 

 exactly like the silk threads in velvet. 



As regards colour, the under part of the mole's fur is 

 generally a rich dark brown, but the effect on the surface of 

 the body is more or less black, or dark bluish-gray. The 

 females, especially on the face and belly, are generally a little 

 browner than the male. There is a marked tendency, however, 

 amongst the British moles towards variation. In them, as in 

 one or two foreign species, an orange patch sometimes appears 

 on the chest. More common variations are an olive tint, a pale 



^ Very full particulars are given on this point, with anatomical drawings, 

 in Mr. L. E. Adams's article on the Mole (Manchester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society, 1902). 



