38 TALPID.^— TALPA 



will be appropriate to mention here the picturesque prophecy of 

 the Scottish soothsayers,^ that when the moudiewarp has overrun 

 Argyllshire to the Mull of Kintyre, it will drive all the Campbells, 

 the great landowners of the district, from their estates. 



The Mole has always been the object of the most deter- 

 mined persecution on the part of farmers and gardeners, who 

 accuse it of causing injuries, more or less serious, to the various 

 products of the soil. The truth of each accusation must, as 

 Mr Adams observes, vary with the circumstances, but it cannot 

 be denied that a heavy list of indictments can be registered 

 agfainst it. Even after excluding- the assertion that it causes 

 inundations, which can be but seldom ; and the somewhat far- 

 fetched suggestion that it encourages mice by leaving them its 

 deserted fortresses ; there remains the destruction of the crops by 

 disturbance, exposure, and severance of their roots, or by their 

 being dug up or scattered and carried off bodily to the fortress 

 to form part of the nest. No part of field, garden, or plantation 

 is exempt from these ravages, and de Vaux estimated the loss 

 to the spring corn in France at not less than one-eighth of the 

 whole crop. Sometimes a field is so extensively mined that 

 the area covered by molehills appears to exceed that of the 

 vegetation, and their presence, even in small quantities, is a 

 great obstruction to mowing. Against accusations such as 

 these the mere condoning of the damage, the suggestion that 

 the contents of molehills spread on the fields afford excellent 

 topdressing, or the assertion that the injuries are counter- 

 balanced by the benefits rendered through aeration of the soil 

 and the destruction of noxious insects, are of little avail. The 

 fact of the devastations cannot be denied, even if the degree 

 and extent of them be incorrectly reported, and few farmers 

 would like to see moles on their land for the sake of any 

 problematical advantages accruing from their presence. 



The history of the efforts made by farmers to cope with the 

 damage done is probably as old as that of tillage or haymaking. 

 Fanciful hints as to the destruction of the animals were compiled 

 in Latin by Palladius,^ probably about the fourth century, and 



' Alston, Zoologist, 1867, 882 ; according to Boyd Watt (1905), the Mole is said 

 to have spread to Campbeltown only recently, and not yet to be known in Southend. 

 2 op. cit. supra^ p. 6. 



