34 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



The food of moles chiefly consists of worms and 

 the larvae or grubs of insects, of which they eat enor- 

 mous quantities. They are extremely voracious, and 

 the slightest privation of food drives them to frenzy, or 

 kills them. They will all eat flesh ; and when shut up 

 in a cage without nourishment, have been known to 

 devour each other. There is a remarkable instance of 

 a mole when in confinement having a viper and a toad 

 given to it, both of which it killed and devoured. All 

 squeeze out the earthy matter which is inside worms 

 before eating them, which they do with the most eager 

 rapidity. In June and July they prowl upon the sur- 

 face of the ground, generally at night, but they have 

 been seen by day ; and this is the time in which they 

 indulge in fleshy food, for then they catch small birds, 

 mice, frogs, lizards, and snails ; but although, when in 

 confinement, one was known to eat a toad, they gene- 

 rally refuse these reptiles, probably from the acrid 

 humour which exudes from their skin. They, on these 

 occasions of open marauding, are often caught and de- 

 voured in their turn by owls at night and dogs by day. 

 They have a remarkable power of eating the roots of 

 the colchicum or meadow saffron, which takes such 

 powerful effect on other animals, and which they pro- 

 bably swallow for the sake of the larvae or worms upon 

 them. Such is their antipathy to garlic, that a few 

 cloves put into their runs will cause their destruction. 



A French naturalist of the name of Henri Lecourt 

 devoted a great part of his life to the study of the 

 habits and structure of moles ; and he tells us that 

 they will run as fast as a horse will gallop. By his 

 observations he rendered essential service to a large dis- 

 trict in France; for he discovered that numbers of moles 



