THE COMMON MOLE, MOLDWARP OR WANT 41 



killed. The Scottish mole-catchers, as Mr Evans informs me, 

 use, instead of the board, a tubular piece of wood representing 

 a short section of the run. 



The Mole, owintr to its undergfround abodes and the orreater 

 facility with which other animals which lie above ground can 

 be procured, has, at least in Britain, few enemies. Dogs and 

 foxes occasionally dig it out. Most of the short-winged hawks 

 and owls — as shown by the bones occurring in their pellets — 

 snap one up now and then when venturing above ground. 

 Weasels,^ and more rarely stoats, have been found or caught 

 in the runs and have been seen carrying dead moles,^ and 

 sometimes they take possession of a fortress. But it does 

 not appear to be proved that any of these animals make 

 a systematic practice of mole-catching,^ and in captivity, 

 as Mr Cocks informs me, they will only eat mole-meat when 

 exceptionally, hungry. 



Moles have been occasionally kept for a few days in captivity, 

 and they thrive well enough if they are supplied with a warm, dry 

 bed, and if their inordinate hunger and thirst receive the constant 

 attention which is essential. Young ones may be taken from 

 the nest at any age and reared on cow's milk, which they drink 

 readily. Their treatment presents no difficulties to people who 

 are accustomed to look after young animals, so that it need not 

 be described in detail. 



Alston ^ wrote a graphic account of one which he kept for 

 nine days. It was the fiercest, boldest, and most voracious of 

 animals. When regaled with the body of a frog it appeared to 

 be possessed of a devil. It literally danced round its victim, 

 worrying and biting at the skin of the belly until it tore it 

 open, after which it feasted sumptuously on the entrails. 

 This mole often carried its food underground ; dragging the 

 piece of meat to its heap of soil, it dived beneath it at one 

 side, then turning itself, thrust out its head and pulled down 

 the food after it. When it fed above ground its head was 



^ As known to Gilbert White (Letter xl. to Thomas Pennant, 2nd September 1 774) — 

 " Weasels prey on moles, as appears by their being sometimes caught in mole-traps." 



^ H. Harden-Simpson, Field, ist May 1886, 570. 



3 A. H. Patterson, Nature in Eastern Norfolk, 311, 1905 ; also Knapp and Dutt, 

 op. cit. supra, suggest that they do. 



* Zoologist, 1865, 9706-9708. 



VOL. IL D 



