128 TALPAM. 



of a mixed feeder ; and M. Flourens accordingly found 

 that Moles perished with hunger when supplied with a 

 quantity of various vegetable substances, such as carrots, 

 turnips, and different kinds of herbs. It is true that 

 vegetable matters are occasionally found in the stomach ; 

 but this no more proves them to be vegetable feeders 

 than the accidental reception into the stomach of some 

 particles of sawdust by a captive Lion, who has had his 

 food thrown to him on a floor covered by that substance, 

 would indicate that the Lion is a feeder on sawdust. 

 The cases are exactly parallel. The Moles gnaw the 

 roots of plants for the purpose of extracting from them 

 such larvae and worms as feed upon them ; they likewise 

 seize upon earth-worms which are entwined amongst the 

 masses of fibrous roots and earth which constitute the 

 superficial layer of grass-lands ; and in each case por- 

 tions of the roots and of the soil itself would be swal- 

 lowed with its actual food. 



The principal object of its search, however, is the 

 earth-worm. In pursuit of this its favourite food, it 

 occasionally follows it towards the surface with such 

 eagerness, that it actually throws itself out of its burrow 

 upon the ground. It has been stated that the Mole will 

 not eat the larvae of the scarabceida, and other coleop- 

 terous insects that live under the ground ; but this is 

 certainly a mistake, as these larvae have been found in 

 their stomach. It is not, however, to these and similar 

 kinds of food that the Mole is necessarily restricted : a 

 mouse or a bird, a lizard or a frog, if placed within its 

 reach, becomes a speedy victim to its voracity. Toads, 

 however, it rejects, even when famishing with hunger; 

 probably on account of the acrid secretion of the skin, 

 first noticed by Dr. Davy. Geoffrey gives a curious 

 picture of the manner in which it will approach, seize, 



