< LITTLE GENTLEMAN IN BLACK VELVET COAT ' 



changing in tint as the creature moves. 

 Sometimes cream moles are caught by mole- 

 catchers, this variety being a lovely orange 

 beneath, and where one has been taken others 

 are likely to be met with. It is a curious fact 

 that though most white animals have pink 

 eyes, that is to say are albinos, this is hardly 

 ever the case with the mole. Certainly it has 

 not been so with all the cream-coloured moles 

 I have met with. I have examined their tiny 

 eyes under a microscope, when it was plain that 

 they were dark. Pink eyes are caused by ab- 

 sence of all colouring matter from the eyes, 

 the red tinge coming from the blood. Other 

 freakishly coloured moles that I have seen are 

 buff, ' smoked,' i.e. white with black tips to the 

 hairs, and very pale grey. Piebalds are ex- 

 ceedingly rare, but there is a very quaint 

 one in the great Natural History Museum at 

 South Kensington, which is spotted, like a 

 roly-poly suet pudding with currants in it ! Of 

 course all these varieties are mere freaks, and 

 it is not one mole in many thousands that 

 differs from its fellows. Indeed one mole is 

 not only exactly like its fellow, but there is no 

 difference whatever between the moles of 

 England and those of the rest of Europe. 



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