68 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



although man employs them as a sure means for entrapping 

 it." * 



After mentioning that we are mainly indebted to the obser 

 vations made many years ago by Le Court for our knowledgi 

 of the construction of the Mole's runs and habitation, thi 

 author proceeds to say that "each individual appropriate 

 to himself a district, or space of ground, in which he form 

 a kind of fortress under a hillock in some secure place, a 

 beneath a bank or near the roots of a tree. In this eminence 

 of which the earth is rendered very compact, is formed ; 

 circular gallery, communicating with a smaller gallery, place( 

 above it, by several passages. On the level of the lower, o 

 larger, gallery is a roundish cavity, or chamber, communicatin. 

 with the upper by three passages. From the outer galler 

 branch off a number of passages, which run out to a variabl 

 extent, and, forming an irregular curve, terminate in what ma 

 be called the high-road, which is a long passage proceedin 

 from the outer circular gallery, and at the same time commun: 

 eating directly with the central cavity. It extends to th 

 farthest limit of the domain, is of somewhat greater diamete 

 than the body of the animal, has its walls comparative! 

 compact, and communicates with the numerous passages b 

 which the domain is intersected. By this principal passage th 

 Mole visits the various parts of its hunting-ground, burrowin 

 to either side, and throwing out the earth here and there, so a 

 to form heaps or mole-hills. As it traverses this path severe 



* I am indebted to Mr. Aubyn Trevor-Battye for some observations o 

 British Animals, which will be read with interest. Concerning the pn 

 sent species he writes as follows :— " With regard to the question of visioi 

 I can state that a Mole which I kept for some time in captivity would tal< 

 worms from my fingers. When I swung a worm about in front of his fac 

 he would— nose in air— follow it backward and forward with his heac 

 Whether he saw it or only smelt it (in which case his quickness of scei 

 was simply marvellous), I am unable to say. " 



