i8 Adams, On the Mole {Talpa europad). 



Fig i8. — Fortress in boggy low land. 



a. — Nest in heap raised above surface of ground. 



b. — Second nest made after a flood had covered the old one. 



c, c, c, (. — Original outline of fortress. 



d. — !'.;!!!;;;!'.'.!;;original tunnel formed by heaping up the fortress. 



e. — Exit made when a second flood had surrounded the heap. 



and the mole had to make an escape hole through the top. 

 When I found the fortress the last flood had freshly 

 subsided. In the same field I found other similar 

 fortresses. The state of the two nests clearly showed 

 that they had been made within a short period. 



In the neighbourhood of Acton Hill, Stafford, where 

 my friend Mr. Patteson kindly gave me leave to explore, 

 the soil is stiff clay and the galleries of the fortresses are 

 remarkably perfect and easy to follow, and their smooth 

 surfaces are often found scored by the mole's claws. It 

 is especially noticeable, too, that, in excavating galleries 

 in clay land, one's hands become smeared with a slimy 

 substance which I can only suppose to be the slime of 

 worms. 



It is truly marvellous how runs are made at all in 

 such difficult ground as Bunter sandstone, where the 

 spade will hardly penetrate, yet the mole will make his 

 accustomed runs, and turn out among the heaps of sand 

 stones weighing over 4 oz., which is the maximum weight 

 of a mole. Worms in this ground must be comparatively 

 scarce, and, one would think, mostly found at the roots of 



