THE MOLE 97 



worms in all its galleries and tunnels. Its digestive powers 

 are remarkably rapid, and with heart and lungs and muscles 

 working at a furious rate, about twelve hours is the limit 

 that it can exist without food. The Mole lives chiefly upon 

 earthworms, which it dexterously skins, stripping off the 

 skin from end to end, and pressing out the contents of the 

 body. But the energetic digger does not limit itself to a 

 diet of worms ; it preys upon frogs, small quadrupeds, and 

 birds, first tearing open the body in its softer parts and 

 gorging itself with the blood. Unless there be plenty of 

 food available tue Mole does not hesitate at cannibalism, 

 the strong inevitably devouring their weaker brethren under 

 pressure of hunger. 



The Mole is not popular with gardeners and farmers, 



FORE LIMBS OF THE COMMON MOLE. 



who view its nocturnal burrowings in cultivated land with 

 marked disfavour. It is annoying to find prized plants 

 uprooted or greensward rendered unsightly by the nume- 

 rous upheavals that mark the creature's tremendous energy. 

 Nevertheless the Mole lays down a system of subsoil 

 drainage without costing the farmer a penny. It is an 

 interesting historical fact that the Jacobites toasted the Mole 

 because William of Orange broke his collar-bone in a fall 

 over a mole-hill. 



An acute observer says that he has traced a fresh tunnel 

 nearly a hundred yards in length that has been burrowed in 

 a single night. What this furious footwork really means will 

 be best understood by the calculation that if a man were 

 to do similar work in proportion to his size, then in one 



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