;, 



MOLE. 



349 



What may be the difference in manners between 

 e blind mole of the south, which has the eyelids 

 closed, and our common mole, it is impossible to say, 

 as very little is known respecting the former. There 

 must be a difference, however, and analogy would 

 lead us to suppose that the blind mole remains much 

 more habitually under ground than the common one. 

 There are various causes which compel the common 

 mole to be a surface-walker, and even a swimmer, at 

 which latter operation it is by no means inexpert ; and 

 when it swims, its glossy fur takes down little air 

 bubbles, which sparkle like pearls through the water, 

 in the same manner as those on the fur of the w r ater- 

 shrews. This power of swimming is absolutely indis- 

 pensable to the animal, because it runs under ground 

 yet flooded during rains; and there are instances in 

 which the failure of food to supply its ungovernable 

 appetite compels it to cross streams of considerable 

 breadth. In the summer drought it is reduced to 

 equal straits, for many of the larvae are then on the 

 wing, the worms are down below its depth, and the 

 ground is too much consolidated for its working along 

 with the requisite degree of speed. It is at such times 

 that the mole is found on the surface, but never ex- 

 posed to the full light of the sun. At such times it 

 feeds on mice and ground birds, the first of which are 

 out of their holes, and the second are reposing on the 

 ground by the time that the evening twilight gets 

 dusky. The mole has thus an opportunity of ex- 

 ercising its powers as a surface hunter, and also of 

 obtaining a full meal with less labour than is required 

 to procure it a scanty one under ground. It is true that 

 it often perishes of hunger, or of hunger and rage 

 jointly, before it can meet with a mouse or a bird ; 

 but, if it does scent the one or the other, it is a crafty, 

 a daring, and, generally speaking, a successful hun- 

 ter. It proceeds upon the scent, gliding so softly 

 through the grass that it makes neither rustle 

 nor foot-fall until it is close upon its victim, and 

 then it finishes its work in a perfect paroxysm of 

 energy. 



Intense energy, in every sense in which the words 

 can be used, is indeed the character of the mole, and 

 it possesses this in a higher degree than any known 

 animal. This demands a powerful stimulus and 

 efficient organs for execution, and we have seen that 

 the mole is furnished with these in an extreme degree. 

 All its movements indeed, and all its operations indi- 

 cate an excess of animation, and that in an animal 

 which in our common speech we set down as having 

 little or none. The one of these parts of its economy 

 not only requires, but necessarily involves, the other. 

 The food could not be acquired by such labour as a 

 mole has to perform, were it not for the great energy 

 and strength of the animal ; and the energy and 

 strength could not be kept up without the copious 

 supply of food. It is doubtful, indeed, whether such 

 an animal as the mole could exist habitually on the 

 surface of the earth, and exposed to the vicissitudes 

 of the weather. The supply of an animal must, in 

 every case, be equal to the waste, and exposure to vicis- 

 situdes of weather is a much greater source of waste 

 than one would be apt to suppose, as we find that 

 animals freely exposed to the open air, even though 

 spared the labour of finding their food, do not fatten 

 so readily, or to the extent of those which are shel- 

 tered. Now, in its common habits, the mole may be 

 said to be always sheltered, with very little variation 

 of temperature, and in a situation where there can be 



comparatively little drain upon it from the action of 

 the atmosphere. Thus we see that the place which 

 has been assigned to the mole in nature, humble 

 and grovelling as we deem it, is highly favourable to 

 the development and the maintenance of its animal 

 powers. 



There is another point very strongly established 

 by the economy of the mole, and that is the con- 

 nexion between great energy of living power and 

 the easy destruction of the same. The mole, not- 

 withstanding the quality which we have mentioned, 

 perishes of hunger sooner than any other creature, 

 and less exposure or contingency of any kind is 

 fatal to it. 



The habitation and general mode of action in the 

 mole are well worthy of study. Except at pairing 

 time, and that is of brief duration, moles are strictly 

 solitary, and each one has its own stronghold or 

 castle. This is very elaborately constructed, and 

 generally placed against a wall, near the roots of a 

 tree, or in some place where it is in part sheltered. It 

 rises with a dome in the form of a conicle, and 

 having the base three or four times as great as the 

 altitude above the surface, into which it gradually 

 fines off so as to drain off the water, and it is so hard 

 and firm that none can penetrate through. The 

 interior consists of two galleries nearly circular, and a 

 circular habitation within. The lower gallery, which 

 has by much the greatest diameter, is placed nearly 

 on a level with the surface of the ground, and the 

 upper one about midway between the lower and the 

 top^'of the dome : five or six sloping passages lead 

 from the one gallery to the other, and at least three 

 lead from the upper gallery to the nest or habitation, 

 which is placed below the upper gallery, but ra- 

 ther above the lower one. Those galleries and 

 passages are not formed by removing the earth and 

 throwing it on the surface, as the mole does when it 

 hunts. They are, as one would say, bored in the solid 

 earth, without the removal of any part of the materials. 

 In consequence of this they are smooth and hard, 

 and not liable to be filled up or be disturbed as the 

 animal moves along. The passages between the gal- 

 leries, and also those which lead to the nest, are in- 

 geniously placed, so that one of them never opens 

 opposite the entrance of another ; and in this way the 

 castle and its outworks are quite a labyrinth to all but 

 the builder and proprietor. This very ingenious and 

 very elaborate structure is understood to be made in 

 the latter part of summer, and the mole makes it its 

 regular home and resting-place from the time of the 

 autumnal rains until the warm season again sets in. 

 It is generally said that a new one is made in a dif- 

 ferent place every year ; and, though it is impossible 

 to establish the fact in all cases, this is by no means 

 improbable, because the labours of a mole are carried 

 on with so much vigour and perseverance, that it is 

 sufficient to exhaust a considerable space of all the 

 underground prey which it contains in the course of 

 one season. Much must, no doubt, however, depend 

 on the extent and nature of the pasture. There is 

 one peculiarity of the mole's habitation which we have 

 forgotten to mention, and to which there is some- 

 thing similar in the burrow of the marmot : imme- 

 diately under the nest there descends a passage more 

 free at its entrance than any of the others. This 

 curves downward to a depth nearly equal to the height 

 of the dome, and then curves upward again at a little 

 distance from the nest. The precise use of this is 



