UTILITY OF MOLES 69 



tapering nails, give them a very uncanny appear- 

 ance ; but their fur is exquisitely fine, soft, and 

 dense, and were they larger, their skins would 

 be of great value to the furriers. As it is, the 

 country people frequently make use of them for 

 waistcoats, etc., and at times for bed coverlets. 

 I have heard that these are considered of great 

 value, especially when the centre is formed of 

 the skins of white moles. The farmers pay, as 

 a rule, twopence or threepence a head for moles. 

 There are in most villages one or two individuals 

 who are employed for the purpose of mole and 

 rat catching. They bring the tails of the 

 moles which they have captured to the farmer 

 on pay-night as a voucher for the number 

 killed. 



Moles do a great deal of good, and a con- 

 siderable amount of harm if they chance to make 

 their way into a garden. In the fields their labours 

 are not to be despised, always provided that the 

 mounds which they throw up are afterwards 

 levelled, and the fresh earth scattered over the 

 surface of the ground. On farms where this is 

 not attended to, the mounds become grass-grown, 

 and speedily ruin the pasture. If the top of an old 

 mole-hill is removed, it will almost invariably be 

 found full of ants, and so partridges and pheasants 

 frequent those fields for the sake of the ants, of 

 which they are excessively fond, and which furnish 

 them with the best of food. In those districts 

 where ants are abundant pheasants will generally 



