MOLE. 



245 



hood of Venice, and the mole of that country is the 

 blind one ; but how he came to know that the moles 

 of that country have the eyelids unopened is a ques- 

 tion which we cannot solve. The probability is that, 

 like most others, he had taken his notions of the 

 animal from the description of Aristotle, or rather 

 from the popular opinions grounded upon that de- 

 scription ; and that, as Aristotle described this blind 

 or southern mole, the mole of authors and also of po- 

 pular story, in the time of Aristotle, was the southern 

 mole, and nof the common mole as found in this 

 country ; for our mole has not only eyes, but very 

 brilliant ones, though they are very small. 



That the mole of the more temperate and cold 

 districts of Europe should have its eyes capable of 

 being opened, and that the mole of the warmer parts 

 should not, is a curious fact in the physiology of the 

 two animals ; and we believe that there is a corre- 

 sponding difference in the habits of the animals. The 

 southern mole, or blind mole, as it may be called in 

 contradistinction to the other, is never, we believe, 

 found on the surface. The soil of the Apennines, 

 where it is understood to be more abundant than a.ny- 

 where else, is always full of worms, of larvae, of ground 

 insects, or of all of them, and therefore the mole 

 finds under ground a constant supply for its voracious 

 appetite, and consequently it is never forced to come 

 to the surface. Our mole, on the other hand, is some- 

 times starved out in its subterranean pastures, and 

 compelled to come to the surface to feed upon what 

 it can find there. When above ground it is rather 

 dexterous in the capture of the smaller rodentia, and 

 even of birds, which it tears open and devours with 

 the greatest voracity. Indeed its ultimate attack 

 upon them is an effort of frenzy, comparable on a 

 small scale to the spring of the lion or the tiger, and 

 if once it can lay hold, there is scarcely any possi- 

 bility of shaking it off. Birds, when it can surprise 

 them, are an easy prey, and so are the different 

 species of field-mice. Rats are, however, more un- 

 toward customers ; and, though a hungry mole very 

 readily attacks a rat, the rat defends itself so stoutly 

 that the battle is usually a drawn one, or rather it is 

 more a matter of chance than of superiority which 

 shall gain the day, for they never desist until one is 

 killed, and whichever may be the victim, the van- 

 quished is eaten as a matter of course. Those surface 

 excursions of the mole are usually performed during 

 the night. This, however, is not always the case ; 

 for the appetite of the mole goads it on so forcibly, 

 that it will brave all circumstances in order that it 

 may feed. Hence, at peculiar seasons, especially 

 when the autumnal droughts have sent the worms far 

 below the surface, the mole is often found prowling 

 about in daylight. It proceeds stealthily through the 

 grass, in consequence of the softness of its fur and 

 the slowness of its motions upon a level surface, and 

 therefore it is not often seen by human beings. Dogs 

 of keen scent find it out however ; and sportsmen, 

 especially if their pointers are not highly bred, are 

 sometimes apt to find them standing at a mole instead 

 of more noble game. 



The fact of the mole standing alone in its economy 

 (for, with the exception of the blindness alluded to, 

 there is hardly any difference between the two spe- 

 cies), it is one of the most interesting animals in the 

 whole class of the mammalia. It is one which cer- 

 tainly disfigures the surface of the ground, and spoils 

 many of the operations of the farmer and the gardener. 



At the same time we must not come to too hasty a 

 judgment against it on the whole. In wild nature 

 there is no question that it is an exceedingly useful 

 animal, and it is very doubtful whether the persecution 

 with which it meets in cultivated places is altogether 

 judicious. There is no doubt that human cultivation 

 by being artificial, in a great measure alters the state 

 of things, so that many of the children of simple 

 nature, which are very necessary there, are not re- 

 quired, or even become nuisances where man culti- 

 vates. Still, it must be borne in mind that cultivation 

 can never be rendered wholly artificial ; but that 

 whatever man does in the way of art, he must still 

 leave far more to be done by nature. This con- 

 sideration ought to give him a feeling for all that is 

 natural about him, and make kirn consider well whe- 

 ther he may not destroy any species of animal be- 

 yond the limit to which his artificial cultivation 

 extends ; for if he does this he may rest assured that 

 he is destroying the balance of nature, and thereby 

 doing a mischief to himself. 



There is no doubt that the portion of full-grown 

 vegetables, and also of those in a moderately ad- 

 vanced stage of their growth which is in the gpound, is 

 much smaller than that which is in the air ; but, ex- 

 cepting in those countries where the mole is not 

 wanted, and therefore not to be found, the portion of 

 the vegetable which is in the soil is most essential to 

 it, and without it the portion above the surface would 

 instantly perish. In such places, too, the beginning 

 of all vegetation is in the soil ; and though nature 

 has adapted matters so beautifully, that, generally 

 speaking, the insect tribes are dormant at the season 

 when the seeds of vegetables are sprouting, yet there 

 are some which germinate at the time when insects, 

 more especially the ground larvae, which are exceed- 

 ingly voracious, are in full activity. The roots of 

 young vegetables, and the young rootlings of old 

 vegetables, being blanched by their covering of 

 mould, are the most succulent parts of the plants, 

 and therefore the parts which hold out the great- 

 est temptation to those predatory insects. The 

 rook, and some other surface feeders, render great 

 service to man in the destruction of these subter- 

 ranean spoilers ; but the service which they render 

 is, as a matter of necessity, confined to the larger 

 plants, which give indication above ground of the 

 spoiler that is attacking them below. This takes 

 place chiefly in the cultivated lands, and not in the 

 rich grassy meadows, the turf of which is, on some 

 occasions, so completely cut by the larva? of the 

 cockchaffer, as that many square yards of it, not more 

 than an inch thick, may be rolled up like a blanket. 

 The places where such depredations occur are the 

 favourite hunting grounds of the mole ; and although, 

 in the course of its hunting, that animal disfigures the 

 surface, by throwing up little mounds of earth here 

 and there, there is no question that it renders the 

 most essential service to vegetation by the destruction 

 of the small animals upon which it feeds. On many 

 points of natural history we are in some danger of 

 being guilty of what is usually called a hippolytism, 

 or putting the cart before the horse, and making the 

 cause and the effect change places ; yet, when we 

 find two circumstances always in close juxtaposition, 

 though we cannot decide positively which is cause 

 and which is effect, we may generally conclude that 

 there is a reciprocal advantage, and that the one is 

 necessary to the other. Now, we find that there is 



