Aug. 1910.] The Common Mole. 19 



While plant fibers or rootlets show up in forty-three cases, 

 in no case was the amount of identifiable plant tissue more 

 than might have been taken in incidental to the ingestion of 

 other food. In many of the stomachs there was a considerable 

 residue after repeated washings, filterings and eliminations of 

 identifiable substances. This residue undoubtedly consisted 

 largely of soil from the intestines of earthworms and finely 

 comminuted animal and, perhaps, plant tissues. Even though 

 starch, sugar or cellulose might be detected by chemical analy- 

 sis, there would be no means of telling how much of this might 

 have come from the digestive tracts of the insects taken as 

 food. 



Six stomachs contained fragments of plant tissue which may 

 have been parts of the seed coat of corn, but resembled very 

 closely thin bark from plant roots. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH CAPTIVE MOLES. It is a difficult matter 

 to keep a mole any considerable length of time in captivity. 

 Altogether we have had more than a score under observation 

 for a short time, but seldom have any of them been kept alive 

 for more than a day or two. Either fright and worry, or lack 

 of proper food in sufficient quantity, soon terminated the life of 

 each captive. They have always been kept in tubs or boxes 

 with a layer of earth several inches deep on the bottom. They 

 were supplied with water and with food of several kinds, some 

 of which they would eat readily. One individual survived for 

 nearly two weeks and seemed to grow fat and sleek under the 

 care we gave him. He finally died of too much kindness. 



These imprisoned moles had insatiable appetites, eating 

 ravenously bits of beefsteak and large numbers of earth- 

 worms. When freshly killed English sparrows were put in the 

 cages in the evening, very little but bones and feathers would 

 be left by morning. All refused to touch corn, potatoes or 

 sweet potatoes, except the individual kept so long. He would 

 eat these articles with some apparent relish, although he went 

 about it very awkwardly. Instead of nibbling at a grain of 

 corn as a rodent does, he would crowd it against the ground 

 with his cheek and, gaining possession of it, chew it in the 

 side of his mouth much as a steer chews a nubbin. The act 

 or drinking water from a shallow dish was accomplished hog 

 fashion, owing to the considerable projection of his snout be- 

 yond the aperture of the mouth. 



