By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 311 
































The posterior limbs are very slender, and the feet plantigrade, but 
the fore limbs have little resemblance in shape to the hind ones, and 
are but awkward instruments for walking, yet for the important 
function of tunnelling» most admirably adapted. Mark again the 
- short thick velvet-like fur, so impervious to wet, with which it is 
clothed; its extraordinary development of the sense of smell, to 
which it is principally indebted for the discovery of its food; and 
the acute powers of hearing which it possesses; and say, is it not 
admirably adapted to the burrowing life it leads? And here in 
_ passing let me observe that the species of mole with which we are 
acquainted, is not blind, as is popularly supposed; for, though for 
the most part but little employed, and within eyelids which are open 
only to a very small extent, it is furnished with very small, bright, 
black, and deeply-set bead-like eyes. There is however, a really 
_ sightless mole, called Talpa ceca, which exists in Southern Europe, 
with which our British species has doubtless been sometimes con- 
founded, and hence the mistaken belief, shared by Shakspeare and 
_ many other authors of note, and generally entertained to this day, 
7 of the positive blindness of our British mole. 
Thus equipped then for the battle of life, and thus furnished with 
_the most powerful appliances for its purpose, the mole traverses the 
_ earth many inches below the surface, in search of the worms, grubs, 
insects and other animals which form its prey. Voracious beyond 
all other creatures, this little glutton can only appease its almost 
insatiable appetite by consuming such a quantity of food as is out 
of all proportion to its own bulk. But unlike other hearty feeders, 
a the most excessive meal does not satisfy it for long. After but a 
very few hours of the most profound sleep, it awakes with recovered 
_ appetite to hunt for a farther supply, and so it passes no small 
portion of its existence, in greedily devouring its prey, or in the 
- deepest slumber, for the mole is no lukewarm nonchalant idler, but 
an earnest determined animal, doing nothing by halves, but throwing 
_ itself with a zeal which is quite extraordinary into the occupation of 
the moment; so that it has been styled, without any exaggeration, 
at once the most voracious and the most ferocious, as well as the 
boldest: and the fiercest of animals of its size. That it should drink 
