104 THE MOLE. 



even to horses and large cattle, and a variety of the 

 most extraordinary remedies for the wound, and pre- 

 ventives against it, are mentioned by Pliny and others. 

 The prejudices of antiquity, long as they usually are 

 in keeping possession of the mind, have not been re- 

 membered by us ; and we only know the hardy shrew 

 now as a perfectly harmless animal, though we still 

 retain a name for it expressive of something malignant 

 and spiteful. 



I think we have reason for suspecting that a shrew 

 new to Britain exists in this neighborhood. A pale 

 blue shrew (sorex Daubentonii 1 Cuvier) has been seen 

 about the margins of our reenes, and the deep marsh 

 ditches cut for draining the water from the low lands 

 of the Severn ; and something of the same kind, in a 

 half-digested state, has been found in the stomach of 

 the heron. If it exist with us, a similar tract of land 

 in more fenny countries may contain it plentifully, 

 though it has as yet escaped detection. 



The mole*want, mouldwarper or mouldturner (talpa 

 europea), is common with us, as it appears to be in 

 most places ; and no creature gives more certain indi- 

 cation of its presence, haunting, from preference, such 

 places as its predecessors have done, though years may 

 have intervened since they were frequented, and rains, 

 and the treading of heavy cattle, have compressed to 

 solid earth the ancient runs ; and however assiduously 

 we may destroy them, should they appear again, it will 

 probably be in the same places that have been formerly 

 perforated by others. The earth that these animals eject 

 from their runs, being obtained from very near the 

 surface, and finely pulverized, has tempted me more 

 than once to have it collected for my green-house plants, 

 but not with the success that I had conjectured. Some 

 persons have advocated the cause of moles, as being 

 beneficial to vegetation, by loosening the soil about the 

 roots of plants. Evelyn and others, again, censure them 

 as injurious creatures ; and there is a strange narration 

 in Buffon, accusing them of eating all the acorns of a 

 newly-set soil. I am not aware of any benefit occasion- 

 ed by their presence ; their warpings certainly give our 

 * See note 8, appendix, f See note T, appendix. 



