CARNIVORA. 101 



up the earth ; the head is an organ for boring or digging, very 

 iong and flat, with the cartilages of the nose ossified ; the liga- 

 ment of the neck, which in other animals is elastic, is here 

 bone also, so that the strain in digging is better borne ; the pelvis 

 is very small ; the bones of the hind limbs are small and slender 

 and the hind feet, though having claws, are feeble in comparison 

 with the spade-like hands, thus hindering not its course through 

 its under-ground roads, but yet having sufficient strength, and 

 not in the way. 



In short, were we called upon for striking evidence of the de- 

 sign and attentive care of GOD. we would point to the habits and 

 manners of the MOLE, and the fitness and adaptation of the 

 means and instruments with which it is provided. The mole 

 does not, of its own accord, emerge from its subterranean abode, 

 except to seek for some more favorable soil in which to construct 

 its halls and winding galleries. Rich and cultivated meadows, 

 abounding in worms and other insects, are its favorite localities 

 in which it makes its burrows. 



Unlike the dormouse or marmot, it is not less active in winter 

 than in summer ; the twilight hours of morning and evening are 

 its period of labor. 



The nest where the female mole nurses her helpless young, 

 (of which she has one brood yearly, generally four or five, some- 

 times as few as three, rarely six,) is formed in a vault, carefully 

 constructed at the center of diverging passages, made soft with 

 leaves, grass, and scales of bulbous roots. ' The parents afford 

 a pattern of mutual affection and assistance." 



The food consists of worms, insects, and when it can obtain 

 them, small birds or quadrupeds, to which roots are also added. 

 It is impatient of hunger, and cannot endure a fast of more than 

 six hours' duration ; an abstinence of twelve hours is said to 

 produce death. 



Agriculturists complain that they suffer injury from the young 

 corn which moles carry off for constructing their nests ; but its 

 turning up and lightening the soil, and its destruction of insects, 

 earth worms and noxious creatures found near the surface of the 

 ground and so hurtful to grass, corn and other, plants, furnish 

 advantages to the farmer which probably more than counter- 

 balance any injuries which he suffers from the doings of the 

 rr.ole ; at the same time, we should guard the undue increase of 

 these mining animals. 



CONDYLURA, (Gr. xavdvlr], kondule, a knob, otigd, oura, a 

 tail ; knobbed tail.) CRESTED or &TAR-NOSED MOEE. This 

 name was given to this animal, by Illiger, under an erroneous 



