NATURAL HISTORY. 



The glass through which an envious eye doth gaze, 



Can easily make a mole-hill mountain seem." FLETCHER. 



Add to this a soft, short-cut vuvety coat, to which no particle of soil ever adheres 

 and you have the perfection of organisation for rapid progress through th 

 ground.* 



195. Why are moles beneficial to farmers ? 



Because of the great number of worms which they devour, 

 which more than compensates for the injury they are supposed to 

 do to the soil, and to roots. It is said that where old mole-hills are 

 most abundant in sheep pastures, the latter animal is generally in a 

 healthy state, as it feeds on the wild thyme and other salubrious 

 herbs, which flourish on these heaps of earth. It is also said that 

 after the mole-hills had been destroyed in a park which belonged 

 to the Earl of Essex, the deer never throve. 



The Rev. C. A. Bury has pointed out that' the good resulting to 

 the farmer from the drainage afforded by the mole-hills is 

 considerable. 



196. Every one is aware of the fact that the mole burrows for its food, that its nest 

 is formed underground, that a larger hillock than the rest is raised for the reception 

 of its young; but it is not so generally known that its subterranean excavations 



are of the most distinct 

 and determinate charac- 

 ter; that there are per- 

 manent .passages or high- 

 roads for its ordinary tra- 

 vels from one part of its 

 domain to another; that 

 into these roads open the 



excavations in which it follows its daily labours in search of food ; that its fortress 

 the house in which it resides from the autumn to the spring is of a complex 

 and most ingenious structure, and that this domicile is always a distinct and almost 

 remote building from that in which the nest is formed. 



The district or domain to which an individual mole confines himself may be 

 termed its encampment. Within its limits, or at least in immediate communication 

 with the district, all the labours of the animal are pursued. It consists of the 

 habitation or fortress, from which extends the high-road by which the animal 

 reaches the opposite extremities of the encampment, and of various galleries or 

 excavations opening into this road, which it is continually extending in search of 

 food, and which constitute, in fact, its hunting-ground. The fortress is formed 

 under a large hillock, which is always raised in a situation of safety and protection 



Penny Encyclopaedia. 



