216 TEE COMMON MOLE. 



such situations. During the winter months, it 

 feeds almost entirely under the earth; but in the 

 warm nights of summer, it often runs about in the 

 open air in search of food, and thus, occasionally, 

 becomes the prey of owls, and other predacious 

 animals. 



Since the extremes of heat and cold are equally 

 pernicious to Moles, we find that they work their 

 covered ways or galleries at different depths, ac- 

 cording to the temperature of the atmosphere at 

 the time. In warm weather, these are usually four 

 or five, or sometimes not more than a couple of 

 inches below the surface; but in cold, and particu- 

 larly in frosty weather, they are much deeper. 

 When their habitations are attacked, the animals 

 will frequently sink themselves, by digging imme- 

 diately from thence a perpendicular hole some feet 

 in depth. I have been informed by an experienced 

 mole-catcher, that, in one instance, he dug with his 

 spade to the depth of four feet after a Mole, and that 

 the animal at last escaped him. These little creatures 

 are so expert in forming a passage for themselves in 

 the ground, that if they are put upon the grass in 

 any field where the soil is tolerably light, they will 

 penetrate it, and cover themselves almost in a 

 moment. Even on a gravelly and hard turnpike 

 road, a Mole has been known completely to cover 

 itself in less than five minutes. 



The principal times at which Moles work during 

 fine weather, are said to be at sun-rise, and for a 



little 



