2 Adams, On the Mole {Talpa eitrop(za). 



Le Court's observations, though here and there imagina- 

 tion is evidently a considerable factor. 



Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who was also in corre- 

 spondence with Le Court, copied most of Cadet de Vaux's 

 work, especially the imaginative parts, which have been 

 copied and handed down by every subsequent writer. 

 But Saint-Hilaire* also published the results of his ana- 

 tomical studies of the mole, and these form the most 

 important and interesting portions of his work. These 

 studies have been hitherto ignored, and, as far as I know, 

 are not even referred to in any text-book, but they 

 deserve recognition, and will be referred to in the course 

 of this paper. 



Blasius,f Macgillivray,^ Bell§ and subsequent writers 

 have apparently been content to copy the information 

 given by Le Court to Cadet de Vaux and to Saint-Hilaire, 

 without any attempt to verify the statements of those 

 writers. 



In an interesting treatise,|| M. Flourens deals with his 

 experiments on the mole's voracity, among which we 

 have the often-quoted one of the mole attacking a live 

 sparrow, where the mystery of the proceeding is explained 

 when we read that the wing feathers were first pulled out 

 to prevent the bird's escape. 



A most amusing treatise on the mole is one by the 

 Rev. James Grierson,1[ who gives the ' facts ' as related to 



* Cours lie PHistoire naturelle ties Afaiiimifires, Paris, 1829. 



+ Naiurgeschichte der Sduge'hiere Detitschlands, 1S57. 



X A History of BrilisJi Quadrupeds, 1 838. (Jardine's Na/uraiist's 

 Lil>rary, Mammalia, vol. vii.^ 



§ A History of the Britisli Quadrupeds, 1874. 



II " Observations pour servir a I'histoiie naturelle de la Taupe." Mi'm. 

 Mus. Hist. Nat., Tome xvii. (1828). 



H " Some Observations on the Natural History and TTabits of the Mole." 

 By the Rev. James Grierson, M.D., M.W.S., Minister of Cockpen. Mem. 

 Wernerian Soc, Vol. iv., pf. i., pp. 218 — 236. 1822. 



