220 



Both English aud French writers have given an account of tlie gyrations of 

 the mole in the soil when love inspu-es his movements, and when the nest is formed 

 where the young moles repose and have to he fed. Sir Charles Bell in his "His- 

 toi-y of British Quadrupeds," says, when alluding to the habits of the mole, — 

 *' The tracks by which the mole piusues his mate ai-e cmiously divaricating; 

 they are very superficial, and are made with gi'eat rapidity ; they are termed by 

 the French ' traces cfamoffr;' and by our English mole-catchers 'coupling-runs,' 

 or 'rut ting-angles.'" Persons engaged upon other pm'suits may tread upon a 

 thing and not see it, for unquestionably we here find the prhman mobile or 

 originator of oiu- old friends the Faii-y-Kiugs in these circks (Vamour. Mr. Jesse, 

 also, in liis Natuial History " Gleanings," has alluded to these curious " rutting- 

 angles," which he says are formed by the male mole, and "are as near the sur- 

 face as possible."* In fact they often break up the surface. M. dc St. Hilah-e, 

 a French naturalist, who has gone into details of the mole's history^ taken 

 from practical persons who werefamUiar with the operations of the mole, shows 

 fully how the spoi-tive animal is incited to these amatory runs ; and I am in- 

 clined to believe that Miss Mole at these times takes a "run" also, and from 

 the form of some double circles that I have seen, I should conclude th.at the 

 runners run into each other's arms ! Of course many of these courses would 

 be of a sinuous character, but as to perfect and complete circles, which are 

 occasionally met with, M. de St. Hilake states that when the mole has made a 

 nest for its young, which is under a hillock much larger than the ordinai-y 

 mounds, he is careful to surround it with a circular path of communication, 

 from whence other passages divaricate deep into the soil, and when these 

 circulai- walks of which M. de St. Hilaire has given a plate, are near enough the 

 surface to break the soil, the grass is disturbed, a ciicle is apparent to the eye, 

 and finally this becomes of a vivid green from young and fresh grasses springing 

 Tip. All this is plain and natural, and we may therefore dispense with the theo- 

 retical ideatliat the sponiles of the Fungus are obliged to " spread centrifugally" 

 in every direction to produce Fairy Kings, which is as much an illusion as the 

 dances of the Fairies themselves. 



If one species of Agaric alone occupied Fairy Kings, it might be imagined 

 that the growth of this Fungus was peculiar, but when not only numerous 

 kinds of Agarics but even Puilballs and the Chanterelles are at times found in 

 the rings, it is clear that the ciicle has been formed in some other way than by 

 centrifugal propulsion. + In some cases, I have reason to believe, th.at a small 

 ring has been formed by wire-worms, but any action that breaks the soil or 

 bums up the grass, will tempt a Fungus or colony of Fungi to take up a position 



* Jesse's Gleanings, p. 13C. 



t Mr. Berkeley has in one of his works, ascribed the formation of tlie ring to " tlie 

 radiation of the mycelium" from the first central Agaric, and says that the space within 

 the ring has " been previonsly exhausted by the demand of the former crop;" but this is 

 so far from being the case that the area of the ring is often green with grass equal to 

 any iu the meadow, while tlic circumference U brown aiid bare. 



