254- NATURAL HISTORY. 



into a spacious apartment supported within by parti- 

 tions at proper distances, to prevent the roof from 

 falling. As the hillock, in which the apartment is 

 thus formed, is raised above ground, the apartment it- 

 self is consequently above the level of the plain, and 

 therefore less subject to accidental slight inundations. 

 The place being thus fitted, she procures grass and 

 dry leaves, as a bed for her young : there they lie se- 

 cure from wet, and she continues to make their retreat 

 equally free from danger. For round this hill of her 

 own raising, are holes running into the earth, which 

 part from the middle apartment, like rays from a cen- 

 tre, and extend about fifteen feet in every direction : 

 these resemble so many walks or chases, into which 

 the animal makes her subterraneous excursions, and 

 supplies her young with such roots or insects as she 

 can provide. Besides they contribute much t6 the ge- 

 rieral safety ; for as the mole is very quick of hearing, 

 the instant she perceives her little habitation attacked, 

 she takes to her burrow, and unless the earth be dug 

 away by several men at once, she and her young al- 

 ways make good their retreat. 



Some authors have said, but without foundation, 

 that the mole arid the badger sleep the whole winter : 

 that this is not true of the badger we have already ob- 

 served. And as a proof that the mole quits its hole 

 in winter as well as in summer, we have only to view 

 the traces it leaves upon the snow. The mole is so 

 fajr from sleeping during the winter, that it continues 

 its subterraneous operations then as well as in summer ; 

 and the peasants of France even proverbially remark, 

 that " when the moles are at work, a thaw is at hand.'* 

 They are indeed fond of warm places ; and the gar- 

 deners often catch them round their hot beds in the 

 months of December, January, and February. 



