34 MAMMALIA INSECTIVORA DIAGRAM 3. 



sucks the blood of sleeping persons. But it does not take much 

 to fill its stomach, and if the wound does not bleed after the de- 

 parture of the vampire, it would not do much more harm than a 

 leech. 



MOLES are still more 

 insectivorous than 

 bats, if this is possible, 

 and have also very 



Mole eating a mole cricket. peculiar habits. They 



burrow in the ground, and make galleries in fields and meadows, 

 and clear out the soil. This forms mole-hills. The mole lives 

 constantly underground, and has no need to see clearly, and it is 

 therefore nearly blind ; its eyes are not visible, as they are very 

 small, and hidden under the fur. It uses its fore paws for dig- 

 ging. They are altogether disproportioned to its size, being 

 large, great, and armed with strong claws. It burrows in the 

 earth with this implement. There is certainly no more laborious 

 animal. The mole sleeps very little, and works almost day and 

 night to find its food. It is very voracious, and may be said to 

 be always hungry. When it has not eaten for six hours, it dies 

 of want. But it is carnivorous, and eats absolutely nothing but 

 animals ; earthworms, wireworms, mole -crickets, and in short, 

 all the insects that it can find. It is a serious error to suppose 

 that it eats the roots of plants ; it dies of hunger when it has not 

 fresh flesh to eat. The mole would thus be a very useful animal 

 if it did not turn up the soil. In some countries, men called 

 mole-catchers make a trade of destroying them, by setting Jraps 

 in their galleries. In other countries they are valued, and the 

 farmers buy them in the market to turn into their fields. Every- 

 thing depends on the crops which are raised. If the field is full 

 of mole- crickets, and if the mole-hills do not interfere with the 

 crops, it will be an advantage to have moles ; if the earth re- 

 moved by the moles causes more damage to the crop than the in- 

 sects which it eats, it is better not to have moles in the field. 

 The farmer must calculate which is best for the produce of his land. 



