14 Adams, Oh the Mole i^Talpa curopcBa). 



which, I imagine, has arisen from a flooded fortress 

 having been explored. Figs. 2, 14 and 15 illustrate 

 such fortresses which came under m)' notice, but it is 

 ridiculous to suppose that the mole foresees the possible 

 rise of water from below, and equally ridiculous to 

 suppose that he digs the well through the water when it 

 has risen. 



I assume that it is in these shafts where collections of 

 paralysed worms have been found, though I have always 

 found them quite empty. I have never come across these 

 " stores of worms " which some writers aver are contrived 

 by the mole with " malice prepense," but I have often 

 found in early spring a knot of three or four worms in a 

 semi-torpid state embedded in the solid earth of fort- 

 resses (not in the tunnels), where I imagine they had 

 collected of their own free will ; and I see nothing 

 unusual in this, for in digging my garden I have fre- 

 quently come across similar knots or bunches of pallid, 

 sickly-looking, semi - torpid worms, which I surmise 

 hibernate together as do the frogs in the mud at the 

 bottom of a ditch. The conclusion that I have come to is 

 that, where these "stores of worms "have been found in 

 " cavities " {e.g., the bolt-run or the downshaft), the worms 

 had fallen in and were unable to get out or burrow into 

 the earth in their enfeebled torpid state. 



Is it not possible that these downshafts are abortive 

 bolt-runs, which have been abandoned when the mole 

 found that the right point to turn upwards had been 

 missed ? This seems all the more probable, as we find 

 that when these downshafts occur the bolt-run is absent. 

 On one occasion, in digging up a nest of young moles, I 

 found one of these downshafts full of loose fresh earth, which 

 I cleared for about 18 inches but had no time to explore 

 further, and the idea has since occurred to me that the 



