The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District. 105 
wards, on looking into the box by the light of a lantern, 
innumerable worms were observed all round the sides endea- 
vouring to make their escape. The Mole, however, was out 
of sight, but his presence was indicated by slight upheavals 
of the soil. By next morning he had not left a worm, and so 
keen was his appetite that it was found impossible to meet 
its demands, and he died after four days of confinement. 
Instances of Moles taking earth-worms from the hand 
‘immediately after being captured have been related to me, 
and incidents of a like import are recorded in “Some Obser- 
vations on the Natural History and Habits of the Mole,” by 
the Rev. James Grierson, M.D., minister of Cockpen (Mem. 
Wern. Soc., iv., p. 218), published in 1822. 
In August last, while searching for land-shells in a birch 
plantation, a strange throbbing sound—a kind of thurr thurr, 
thurr thurr—somewhat like the purring of a cat or the distant 
jarring of a goatsucker, arrested my attention. Creeping 
cautiously in the direction whence the sound came, I per- 
ceived that it proceeded from the ground, and the moment 
I touched the spot it ceased. On digging into the ground a 
Mole’s run was found a few inches below the surface, and 
I have not the slightest doubt the author of the sound was 
no other than the Mole itself. 
I have obtained the young (probably ten days to a fortnight 
old) from the nest during the third week of May. They 
were then of a bluish-grey colour, very silky in appearance, 
and without fur. 
Buff and cream-coloured varieties are not very uncommon, 
and from time to time afford material for a correspondence 
in the newspapers. 
Order CARNIVORA. 
FELIS cATus Z. WILD Cart. 
Though doubtless once a denizen of all our glens and deans, 
wherever the banks were sufficiently rocky and clothed with 
woods and thickets to afford the necessary shelter, this fine 
animal is now quite extinct throughout the whole of the 
