80 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



night to lick the grass — the dew was enough for them. 

 " If that is so," I said, " then they must die of thirst 

 in seasons when there is no dew." " They do die," he 

 answered ; " in very dry windy summers, when there 

 is no dew, you find a good many moles lying about 

 dead on these hills every morning." He added that 

 they did not all die ; that a year or so after a time of 

 great mortality they became numerous again. 



The story I had heard of the moles dying in num- 

 bers when there was no moisture to be got from the 

 grass was afterwards confirmed by other persons whom 

 I questioned on the subject — some of them shepherds, 

 and some men of other occupations whose lives had 

 been passed among the downs. Yet I could not say 

 that the books are entirely wrong in what they tell 

 us : it is a fact, I believe, that in lowlands where ac- 

 cess to the water is easy moles do drink at regular 

 intervals, and must drink to live ; and we may believe 

 that the hill-top moles in the course of long centuries, 

 probably thousands of years, have become inured to 

 other conditions, and, like many mammals found in 

 waterless deserts, are able to exist without drinking. 

 Moles transplanted from the lowlands would doubtless 

 quickly perish on these hills. 



When we come to the bird life of the downs we 

 find that the species are not many. Nevertheless, 

 there is more to be said about the birds than the 



