By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 309 
Let me in the first place disarm opposition, if I can, to the claims 
I am about to put forth for the Mole, by declaring that I am not 
‘going to pronounce him immaculate, or slur over the injuries he 
sometimes commits. I have, it is true, ever considered this little 
quadruped as an animal of great interest; I have always admired 
his remarkable shape and formation, and his extraordinary instinct : 
and I have paid considerable attention to his habits, not only in a 
_ state of freedom, but also in captivity ; having had especial oppor- 
tunities of so doing, when an Irish friend and neighbour, to whom 
the mole was a stranger (for there are no moles in Ireland), by way 
of making his acquaintance, kept one for many weeks in confinement 
in alarge open pan. But it is not asa blind partizan that I advocate 
his cause; but when I have stated plainly and dispassionately both 
sides of the question, all that may be said against as well as for him, 
I shall be astonished if the verdict of an unprejudiced public is not 
in his favour: and I am very sure that if I fail in convincing my 
readers of his value, it is from the weakness of the advocate who 
holds the brief, and not from the weakness of the cause. 
There is but one species of mole which inhabits this country, viz., 
_ the Common Mole of Europe (Zalpa! Europea). It was generally 
known in England, and is to this day familiarly spoken of in 
Nottinghamshire and some other counties as the “ Mouldiwarp:” 
which is evidently no other than the old Anglo-Saxon “ molde-wyrp,” 
from modde, earth or mould, and weorpan, to cast or throw, or rather 
wyrp, a caster: just as the modern German designation of the same 
animal is maulwurf, the latter part from werfen, to throw; and 
alluding in both cases to the manner in which the fin-like hands 
q warp, or throw off the mould on each side of them. But with us in 
_ Wiltshire it is universally known as the “ Want,’ a term which is 
_ often ridiculed as a provincialism, but which I will venture to say is 
_ of no less antiquity than Mouldiwarp, and may equally boast an 
_ Anglo-Saxon origin, being indeed no other than the name Wand, 
_ changing the final letter d into ¢, after a method not uncommon in 
_ this county: and here again we have the term by which the mole 





1Talpa, from rupdos, alluding to its supposed blindness, 
