608 NATURAL HISTORY. 



eventually comes back to one principal road which leads from the central 

 hill, or " fortress/ to the most distant part of the mole's range. From this 

 principal road the mole runs out drifts in every direction in his daily 

 search for food. This main road is made by compression of the earth, but 

 the lateral branches are constructed rapidly by throwing up the earth at 

 intervals to the surface, — a true excavation. The mole, in running these 

 branches, finds worms, insect larvae, and the like, on which it feeds. The 

 mole, in order to go from his dwelling to his feeding-grounds has to trav- 

 erse this main road, and eventually becomes very smooth. In passing 

 through it he usually makes pretty good time, and the experiments of 

 Le Court at the beginning of this century, as related by the late Thomas 

 Bell in his History of British Quadrupeds is worth quotation. 



" Having ascertained the exact direction of the road, and finding that 

 the mole was engaged in exploring for its food the ground at the farthest 

 extremity from the fortress, he placed along its course, at certain distances, 

 several pieces of straw, one extremity of which penetrated within the 

 passage, and to the other end was fixed a little flag of paper. He also 

 introduced into the passage near the end a horn, with the mouth-piece 

 standing out of the ground. Then, waiting till he was sure of the mole's 

 presence at that part of the road, he blew into the horn, to use the words 

 of Geoffroy, ' un cri eft'royable ' ; when, in a moment, the little flags were 

 successively thrown off, as the mole, in its rapid course toward its fortress, 

 came in contact with the interior extremities of the straws, and the spec- 

 tators of this neat and demonstrative experiment affirm that the speed of 

 the frightened mole was equal to that of a horse at full trot." 



Of our American moles only one need be mentioned ; this is the curious 

 star-nosed mole, which receives this name from the star-like appearance of 

 the tip of its nose. Surrounding the nostrils are a number of delicate 

 fleshy filaments, each richly supplied with nerves, the whole giving much 

 the appearance of a star ; whence the name. In the nose of the common 

 mole the nerves are also well developed, but in this form we find a much 

 further specialization. It is easy to see what purpose these fulfil in these 

 animals. They are of great use in ascertaining the presence of suitable 

 morsels of food in the soil, and in places where the eyes could not be of 

 the slightest use. 



It is a considerable step from the habits of the moles to those of the 

 animal shown in the next cut, the colugo, or kaguan, of the East Indies, 

 a form much more like a flying-squirrel or a bat in general appearance 

 than like a mole or hedge-hog. The animal itself is not well known. 

 All the points in its structure show that it is a true insectivore modified for 

 an arboreal and aerial life in much the same way as is the flying-squirrel. 



