MOLES. 65 



colours mentioned above. Piebald specimens appear to be the 

 most uncommon of the normal variations. A white Mole with 

 a red throat is on record ; and Mr. Harting mentions a speci- 

 men captured in Fifeshire in 1880, which had a white head, 

 while elsewhere it was of the normal colour. 



Distribution. — Although unknown in Ireland, the Mole ranges 

 over the greater part of Europe and Asia north of the Hima- 

 laya, occurring as far eastwards as Japan, and it is also found in 

 the Altai mountains. In England it is so universally distributed 

 as to require no special mention ; and it probably occurs in 

 most or all parts of Wales, being common even in the ex- 

 treme west of Anglesea. Always more or less abundant in the 

 Scottish lowlands, the Mole appears to have been formerly 

 very rare or unknown in the more northern districts, but during 

 the latter decades of the present century has been gradually 

 extending its northward range. In Sutherlandshire, according 

 to Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley, it is still steadily on the 

 increase, having been very rare about 1840 in Durness, where it 

 is now common, as it is, in suitable localities, throughout Caith- 

 ness. Although unknown in 1791 in the Lismore district, it 

 subsequently made its way into the Kintyre isthmus of Argyll- 

 shire, and is now found in many parts of that county. The 

 writer last mentioned further states that " the Mole is said to 

 have been accidentally introduced into Mull— where it is now 

 quite common — about eighty years ago — say about 1808 — in a 

 boat-load of earth brought from Morven. The earth was a 

 peculiarly fine loam, intended for making the floor of a cottage 

 when mixed with clay and smithy ashes." Quite, recently it 

 has made its appearance in the adjacent island of Ulva. It 

 appears, however, still to be absent from the other islands. 

 Similar testimony might be adduced as to the gradual spread 

 of this animal in other northern counties of Scotland, but the 

 foregoing is sufficient to show that ere long it will probably be 

 5 ? 



