10)3 



TAMANDUA. 



TAMARIX. 



1014 



towards their end. It has been observed that when, on opening one 

 of these alleys, a plentiful supply of food is found, the mole proceeds 

 to work out branch-alleys from its termination, upheaving new mole- 

 hills as it advances in quest of prey. Should however the soil be barren 

 of the means of existence, the animal commences another alley at a, 

 different part of the high road. The quality and humidity of the soil, 

 which regulate the abundance of earth-worms, determine the greater 

 or less depth of the alleys. 



The main road being the highway of communication to its different 

 hunting-grounds, it is necessarily passed through regularly iu the 

 course of the day, and it is in this road that the mole-catcher sets his 

 traps or practices his devices to intercept the animal between its 

 habitation and the alley where it is carrying on its labours. Some 

 mole-catchers will tell you that the hours when the moles move are 

 nine and four, and others, that near the coast their movements are 

 influenced by the tides ; to which statements the reader is at liberty 

 to give as much credence as he chooses. Besides the various traps 

 which re set for them, there is, or very lately was, a man who 

 travelled the country with a dog and destroyed them without any 

 trap at all, by the following process: Taking his station at the proper 

 time and place, attended by his dog, and armed with a spear or spud, 

 he waits till the dog indicates the presence of the mole, and then 

 spears or spuds the animal out as it moves in its run. Pointers will 

 stop at moles as steadily as at game when the latter are straying on 

 the surface. 



Besides the excavations already noticed, the moles pursue another 

 mode of hunting in light loose soils, newly sown, when gentle rains 

 have led the earth-worms towards the surface, along which they follow 

 the worms up, rapidly digging a shallow trench in the superficial layer 

 of the soil. The female, when with young, is said to be principally 

 addicted to this easier method of subsistence. 



We must not omit to notice the provision of this animal to secure a 

 supply of water, for its voracity makes it a great drinker. If a pond 

 or ditch be at hand in those cases where many moles use the same 

 common highway, a run is always made to the reservoir : when it is 

 too distant, the animal sinks little holes in the shape of deep perpen- 

 dicular shafts, which hold water. These wells have sometimes been 

 seen brim-full. 



During the season of love, at which time bloody battles are fought 

 between the males, the male pursues the female with ardour through 

 numerous divaricating superficial runs wrought out with great rapidity, 

 termed 'coupling runs 'and 'running angles' by our mole-catchers, 

 and ' traces d'amour ' by the French. The young are generally pro- 

 duced in April, but have been found from that month to August. 

 From four to five is the general number, though from three to six 

 have been recorded, and in one case seven in one nest. The nest is 

 distinct, usually distant from the habitation, and not always crowned 

 with a hillock ; but when a hillock exists it is much larger than an 

 ordinary mole-hill. It is constructed by enlarging and excavating the 

 point where three or four passages intersect each other ; and the bed 

 of the nest is formed of a mass of young grass, root-fibres, and 

 herbage. In one case, Geoffrey St. Hillaire and Le Court counted 

 204 young wheat-blades. 



Heavy charges have been brought against the Mole by agriculturists 

 and horticulturists, and the more grave accusation of being ancillary 

 to the destruction of dykes has been in some instances proved upon 

 it. Mr. Bell, iu his interesting ' History of British Quadrupeds,' sums 

 up the evidence against it and in its favour. On the whole there 

 appears to be no ground for the war of extermination which is carried 

 on against it. 



Moles are good swimmers, and their bite is very sharp. When their 

 blood is up, their ferocity is great, and they keep their hold like a 

 bull-dog. 



The Common Mole is found throughout the greater part of the 

 continent of Europe and its larger islands. In Greece it is said to be 

 comparatively rare. We are overrun with it in most parts of England 

 and Wales, but it does not appear to have been found in the northern 

 extremity of Scotland, though it is frequent enough in the south. 

 There is no record of its having been seen in the Orkney Isles, Zetland, 

 or Ireland. 



Fossil remains of the Mole have been found in the bone-caverns ; 

 as, for example, in the cave at Kostritz and at Paviland. (Buckland, 

 ' ReliquifB Diluviantc.') They have also been found in the bone-caverns 

 in Belgium (Schmerling). 



Bones of Moles have been obtained from the brown clay of Norfolk. 



TAMA'NDUA. [ANT-EATER.] 



TAMARICA'CE.<E, Tamaruki, a small natural order of Plants, 

 belonging to the syncarpous group of Polypetalous Exogena. The 

 species are either shrubs or herbs, having rod-like branches, with 

 alternate entire leaves, resembling scales; the flowers are in dense 

 spikes or racemes. The calyx is 4-5-pnrted, persistent; the petals 

 inserted into the calyx, both with imbricate aestivation ; stamens bypo- 

 gynoun, distinct or united, equal in cumber with the petals or twice 

 as many ; ovary superior, with a short style and 3 stigmas ; fruit a 

 capsule, 3-valved, 1 -celled, with numerous seeds, which are comose ; 

 embryo straight with an inferior radicle. 



The species are found only in tho Old World ; the greatest number 

 being met with in the basin of the Mediterranean. 



The plauts of this order are innocuous, and all are more or less 

 astringent ; and their ashes after burning are remarkable for possessing 

 a large quantity of sulphate of soda. Myricaria Gennanica, is recom- 

 mended as a diuretic. 



a e d 



Tamarix Germanica. 



a, cutting, shoving the straight branches and scale-like leaves ; b t single 

 flower ; c, flower with calyx and corolla removed, showing monadelphous 

 stamens ; rf, capsule with comose seeds escaping. 



TAMARIK [MIDAS.] 



TAMARIND. [TAMARINDUS.] 



TAMARINDU'S, a genus of Plants belonging to the Rectembryous 

 division of the natural order Leguminotce. It possesses the following 

 characters : Calyx cleft, tubular at the base, the three upper lobes 

 rerlexed, the two lower ones joined together, but usually iudeutate 

 at the apex ; petals 3, alternate with the three upper lobes of the 

 calyx, the middle one cucullate and the lateral ones ovate ; the stamens 

 are 9 or 10 in number, two or three of which are longer than the 

 others, united at the base, and bearing anthers, whilst the remainder 

 are sterile; the fruit is a legume seated on a pedicel, 1 -celled, com- 

 pressed, with from 3 to 6 seeds, and the valves filled with pu'.p 

 between the endocarp and epicarp, their inner and outer lining ; the 

 seeds are ovato-quadrate in form, possessing cotyledons unequal at 

 the base. 



There are only two species belonging to this genus, both of which 

 are trees with abruptly pinnate leaves, bearing many pairs of small 

 leaflets and racemes of flowers. 



T. In-tica, the East Indian Tamarind, was the earliest known 

 species, for a knowledge of which, in Europe, we are indebted to 

 the Arabians. It is distinguished by its elongated legumes, which 

 are six times or more longer than they are broad. It is a native of 

 various districts in the East Indies and also of the tropical parts of 

 Africa. It forms a handsome tree with spreading branches, bearing 

 leaves of a light colour and flowers with a straw-coloured calyx and 

 yellow petals, streaked with red : the filaments of the stamens are 

 purple and the anthers brown. The timber of this tree is very firm, 

 hard, and heavy, and is applied to many useful purposes in building. 



A second species is the T, occidentalis, the West Indian Tamarind, 

 which is distinguished from the other by possessing short legumes 

 not more than three times longer than they are broad. It is a native 

 of South America and the West Indian Islands, forming also a large 

 spreading tree, with yellowish flowers streaked with red, and purplish 

 stamens. 



TAMARIX, the name of a genus of Plants, the type of the natural 

 order Tamaricaccce. It has a 4- or 5-parted calyx ; 4 or 5 petals ; 4 

 or 5 stamens alternating with the petals, united at tho base ; a tapering 

 ovary with 3 stigmas ; erect tufted seeds, the tuft being composed of 

 a number of hairs proceeding from the apex of the seed. The species 

 have generally paniculated spikes of small flowers of a red colour. 



T. QaUica, the French Tamarisk, is a glabrous glaucous shrub, with 

 minute acute leaves clasping the stem, with slender lateral spikes of 

 flowers five times longer than broad. This species is a native of 

 France, and also along the Mediterranean ; it is also a native of the 

 coasts of Cornwall, Hampshire, aud Sussex, in England. Ehrenberg 

 has described a great number of varieties of this species, one of which, 

 the T. 0. mannifera, known by its glaucous powdery appearance, he 

 says, produces the manna of Mount Sinai. This is one of the species 



