Star-nosed Mole 



bask in it at mid-day, even those that are most active at night 

 like their sun-bath at noon. 



But these little " ground- dwellers " actually appear to dislike 

 the touch of the sun from the manner in which they avoid it. 

 They can know little more of the grass and flowers than the 

 moist touch of the colourless root fibres that fringe the ceilings 

 of their tunnels and the first tender shoots of the water-plants 

 they encounter beneath the ice months before winter shows 

 signs of breaking above ground. 



Rare water-beetles and the larvae of insects, which famous 

 entomologists would gladly give years of patient study to learn 

 more about, must be every-day common-place matters to the 

 mole, but whether his "dim-eyed understanding" holds any 

 definite image of the things he so diligently searches for or not is 

 never to be known. Does he really distinguish between the 

 various kinds, I wonder, more than their taste and the crunch of their 

 crisp wing covers between his teeth ? I feel certain, that while he is 

 digging away earnestly down in the dark for his dinner, such dull 

 thought as he has is centred on the prospects of a lucky catch, 

 and naturally certain species of fat and well-flavoured grubs would 

 appeal more strongly to his appetite than others. 



By the law of just compensation, his immense appetite and the 

 matter of eating, which occupies so very much of his time, ought 

 rightly to yield him a gr^at deal of pleasure, there seems so little 

 else for him to enjoy. 



192 



