LITTLE GENTLEMAN IN BLACK VELVET COAT ' 



often go straight across a field, practically 

 without twist or turn, though with a few 

 side runs for hunting purposes. The female 

 does not care about such bold and go-ahead 

 methods; she has a different temperament, 

 she is more timid and retiring, she prefers to 

 turn and twist, to work backwards and forwards 

 until her runs are a confused tangle in which 

 it is as impossible to make out any method or 

 purpose as it is in a ravelled skein of wool. 

 Of course, where moles are very numerous the 

 ways will run one into another; no system is 

 distinct from the next, and the whole field 

 will be covered with a confusion of mole 

 heavings, so that it is likely that even the moles 

 themselves hardly know when they are in their 

 own runs or poaching in those of a neighbour. 



The old males are most active and travel 

 more widely during April. Their quarrelsome- 

 ness is also at its height, and what happens 

 if two meet face to face can be best left to the 

 imagination ! About the middle of May their 

 mates begin to think seriously of nursery 

 requirements, a matter which does not interest 

 the males in the least. The female mole is a 

 cautious little creature ; she retires to some un- 

 frequented corner of her own run, and there 



L 161 



