QUADRUPEDS. 21 



the same in diameter. I have often examined these eminences, 

 and have never been able fully to understand how they are form- 

 ed ; a slight motion is observed at the surface, and presently this 

 loose earth is seen to be worked up through a small orifice, 

 whence, falling on all sides, by its accumulation the hills just men- 

 tioned are produced. It seems to be brought from some distance, 

 for on breaking up the gallery, it is evident that more earth had 

 been thrown out than could have been removed in excavating the 

 immediately adj Dining portions of the burrow. In one instance I 

 have seen the shrew-mole show the extremity of its snout from the 

 centre of one of these loose hills, where it had come at mid-day, as 

 if for the purpose of enjoying the sunshine, without exposing its 

 body to the full influence of the external air. 



Under ordinary circumstances the burrows are simply oval- 

 arched galleries, running forward either straight or in gentle 

 curvatures, at the depth heretofore mentioned, and they are most 

 regular in soils abounding in earth-worms. In the dry and sandy 

 soil I have found them very irregular in direction and depth, and in 

 the woods, uniformly leading round the roots of trees, under which 

 large excavations are frequently to be traced. We can readily un- 

 derstand the object of these excavations when we recollect that the 

 ants very often have their nests in such situations, and their larvae 

 or eggs constitute a favorite food of the shrew-mole. The burrows 

 made by this animal are sometimes found to terminate under large 

 stones, where it resorts to gather the insects, which are numerous 

 in such situations. I have traced a burrow of this sort close to a 

 barn wall, and then following it nearly around the whole house, 

 have found that it passed under every large stone in its vicinity, 

 although not directly in the general course of the gallery, the 

 cavity being much larger beneath the stones than elsewhere. 



The favorite food of the shrew-mole is the earth-worm ; grubs 

 and insects of various kinds he destroys in great quantities, and it 

 may fairly be questioned whether the good done in this way does 

 not more than overbalance any evil attendant on its presence. It is 

 true that this animal is accused of eating grass roots, and roots of 

 succulent vegetables, and may thus be productive of some mis- 

 chief in gardens, but scarcely to so great a degree as to constitute 

 a serious evil. The presence of the shrew-mole in fields of Indian 

 corn appears to be decidedly advantageous from the destruction of 

 great numbers of slugs and worms ; but in dry seasons these ani- 

 mals, if numerous, may injure small gi"iin or grasses to a consider* 



