254 



MOLE- CRICKET. 



muscular power as a digging instrument, and not a 

 little as a prehensile one. The eyes are exceedingly 

 small ; and even when the animal has occasion to use 

 them, their lids open but a little way, though the eyes 

 themselves are bright and shining. All the teeth are 

 remarkably sharp, and more especially the canines, 

 by means of which, though the mole does not kill its 

 prey in the business-like manner of the true carnivora, 

 it very speedily tears open those animals which it 

 masters while yet alive, and devours their vitals ere 

 they have ceased to feel pain. The incisive teeth are 

 small, but bite very keenly, and the false grinders are 

 shaped like the canines, only much smaller, and they 

 use these in tearing. The true grinders are broad, 

 and have many tuberculous prominences for dividing 

 the food ; but there is no proper grinding motion in 

 the jaws. The fore feet are accordingly stout, and 

 formed and used in the manner already explained, the 

 carpus being wholly, the metacarpus partially con- 

 cealed under the fur. This fur is very short, delicate, 

 and silky, and being inserted perpendicularly in the 

 skin, and not sloping in one direction more than in 

 another, it is not ruffled by any action of the animal 

 against the earth through which it works. The colour 

 may, generally speaking, be said to be deep black ; 

 but it is so far iridescent that it shows different 

 colours. If seen from the side toward which it is 

 bent, it is velvet black without any reflections, whereas, 

 if seen from that toward which it is bent, it is glist- 

 ning grey. In different lights it shows various shades 

 of colour intermediate between those two extremes ; 

 and though it does not under any circumstances dis- 

 play the brilliant lustres of the golden mole of the 

 Cape, the whole of its hair has metallic glosses. The 

 tail of the mole is scaly, but the scales are inter- 

 spersed with longer and stiffer hairs than those on 

 any other part of it, with the exception of the whis- 

 kers. The skin of the mole is an exceedingly delicate 

 and beautiful fur, and by no means without durability ; 

 but the individual skin is small, and it is not easy to 

 procure a sufficient number for any other than trifling 

 articles. 



The Blind Mole (Talpa c<eca). In its general 

 habits, this animal does not appear to differ much 

 from the common mole, though, as we have already 

 said, it is but rarely seen, and altogether an exceed"- 

 ingly obscure animal in its habits. So far as we know, 

 it has never been met with to the northward of the 

 Alps, or indeed almost anywhere but in the Apen- 

 nines, though there is no doubt that it is the mole 

 described by Aristotle. 



Their distinctions are structural, however, and, as 

 such, they are sufficient to warrant us in regarding it 

 as a different species. It is probable that it may be 

 found in other parts of Europe besides those in which 

 it has hitherto been actually found, because it does 

 not appear that there is any circumstance connected 

 With it which necessarily confines it to climates 

 warmer than those inhabited by the common mole ; 

 and this is rendered the more likely by the fact of 

 its being found among the mountains rather than in 

 the low countries. It is smaller than the common 

 mole, being about a fifth part shorter from the muzzle 

 to the tail, and its snout is more flattened in propor- 

 tion. Its colours and general aspect are, however, so 

 like those of the common mole, that a casual observer 

 can distinguish but little difference between them. 

 The characteristic differences are in the incisive teeth 

 and the eyes. In the common mole these teeth are 



all of equal length, whereas the blind mole invariably 

 has the two middle ones longer than any of the rest. 

 The eyes of the common mole are small, and the 

 eyelids open only as a little slit ; but the eyes of this 

 one, though supplied in nearly the same manner as 

 those of the other, are little else than rudimental ; 

 and, instead of being a slit, the opening of the eye is 

 like a mere pin-hole, through which the eye cannot 

 be observed without the most careful examination. 

 But even this circumstance does not warrant the 

 conclusion that this mole is absolutely blind, because 

 we are unable to tell what is the minimum size aper- 

 ture through which an animal can see. We want 

 farther information respecting the economy of this 

 species, and the points in which it differs from the 

 common mole; and, indeed, the habits of both 

 moles are so different from those of most other 

 mammalia, that few subjects better deserve attention 

 from the observers of nature. 



MOLE -CRICKET (GRYLLOTALPA VULGARIS, 

 Fabricius ; GRYLLUS GRYLLOTALPA, Linnajus). 

 The very expressive English name of an insect be- 

 longing to the family of the crickets (Achetidfc], but 

 having the burrowing habits of the mole, its fore legs 

 being very similar in general form to the fore feet of 

 that quadruped. We have already, in the article 

 CRICKET, given a general account of the habits of 

 this insect ; but a few additional particulars from 

 more recently published works will not be thought 

 out of place in mentioning the insect in its alpha- 

 betical situation. Unlike the majority of the 

 crickets and Gryllidas, the female mole-cricket is un- 

 provided with an exserted ovipositor, so that it is 

 difficult, on inspecting the abdomen of a specimen, 

 to ascertain to which sex it belongs, the same num- 

 ber of segments being found both in the male and 

 female. The wing-covers, however, furnish more 

 certain proofs, the disc in the male being more closely 

 reticulated with nervures ; there are also one or two 

 cells at the base, which are, moreover, larger in the 

 males than in the opposite sex. It is a curious cir- 

 cumstance also that a genus so extraordinarily formed 

 as this is should be distributed nearly over the entire 

 surface of the globe. The species are but few in 

 number, but widely extended. The common mole- 

 cricket is exclusive to Europe ; there are several 

 American species; Africa and Asia are also inha- 

 bited by them ; and there are at least two found in 

 New Holland. It still remains to be proved whether 

 the north of Africa possesses the common European 

 species, a peculiarity in geographical entomology 



Gryllotalpa vulgaris. 



exhibited by various other insects. They seem to 

 prefer cultivated spots, such as kitchen gardens, corn 

 fields, &c., digging a deep cell in the earth, to which 

 they retire during the winter, and which communi- 



