42 MAMMALS. 



The sense of sight is, however, practically in abeyance, 

 though the eyes are not, as in its cousin of the Mediter- 

 ranean countries, totally enveloped in the skin, but may 

 be seen by any one who will take the trouble to blow 

 aside the fur that normally conceals them. 



The elongated muzzle, which is the most sensitive part 

 of the mole's anatomy (especially in the North American 

 genus, on the snout of which is a starlike growth, recalling 

 the nose-leaf in some bats), is thought to give assistance 

 in tunnelling, though the powerful back -turned claws 

 would appear to need little help. 



The engineering works of the mole have been so often 

 described that a very brief notice of its wondrous under- 

 ground establishment will here suffice. What 



Molehills. i i i -11 , i JT 



we know as a molehill is nothing more than 



the earth thrown up by the creature as it forages into 

 fresh feeding-grounds, its course being along a kind of 

 highroad, also clearly discernible at the surface. It is 

 in this main track that the traps are set. The actual 

 fortress of the mole, a circular abode reached by a number 

 of passages converging from this highroad, is not thrown 

 up in the exposed part of a field like the hills, but is 

 generally in a natural hummock, or I have found them 

 in hedges. It has a circular gallery, into which run the 

 paths from the highroad. The mole works at various 

 depths according to the nature of the soil and the scarcity 

 of worms, and it is by this that its mischief to the farmer 

 is reckoned. As already mentioned, when snow lies thick 

 on the ground, it works almost at the top. When, how- 

 ever, worms are scarce, as in periods of drought, it sinks 

 its shafts to a much greater depth, and is at such times 

 incapable of doing any damage whatever. On occasion, 

 these animals will obtain their food above ground, where 

 they often feed on certain larvae. This is observed most 

 frequently in the early part of the year. 



The females, being in the minority, have a number of 

 lords, and great fights are held in their honour, it being 



