Aug. 1910.] The Common Mole. 9 



inch and a half in diameter. They usually ridge up the sur- 

 face of the soil so that their course can be readily followed. In 

 wet weather they are very shallow; during a dry period they 

 range somewhat deeper, following the course of the earth- 

 worm. 



HABITAT. While the mole seeks out the higher and dryer 

 spots for his home and his highways, he hunts preferably in 

 soil that is shaded, cool and moist. Here worms and grubs 

 abound, and these favored areas soon become traversed by a 

 perfect labyrinth of subsurface paths. This accounts for the 

 persistency with which moles stick to our lawns and parks. In 

 neglected orchards and natural wood-lands, where the mole 

 works undisturbed, the ground yields everywhere to the tread, 

 giving evidence of the presence of runways under the leaves or 

 matted grass. In the vicinity of buildings or sidewalks the 

 mole very commonly makes his headquarters under portions 

 of these structures. 



Persistent as the spider in repairing its web when torn by 

 accident or design, the mole patiently labors to reconstruct his 

 principal runways when gullied by heavy rains or otherwise 

 damaged. His invariable practice is to burrow under and 

 heave up the floor of the old run wherever the roof has fallen 

 in, thus forming a. new passageway beneath. He will repeat 

 this process time after time when one opens up his burrows by 

 hand, until the most recent effort at tunneling and repairing 

 will have taken him down beneath the floor of a narrow 

 trench as much as a foot in depth. 



THE MOLE'S GUESTS. Whether willing or not, the mole finds 

 himself compelled to act as host to a large number of guests 

 that throng his hallways. The maze of passages that thread 

 the soil everywhere furnishes concealment and lines of traffic 

 to, several species of small mammals not favored by nature 

 with the means for digging runways of their own. What 

 the mole's attitude towards each species of these in- 

 truders may be these investigations have not revealed. In 

 the case of the shrew it would seem to be one of hos- 

 tility, for the shrew and the mole are on the lookout for the 

 same kinds of food. The shrew is generally supposed to do 

 some burrowing on his own account, but any number of the 

 little animals have been trapped in runways that from their 

 size and general appearance were undoubtedly constructed by 



