TALPID.E. MAMMALIA. TALPID.E. 



quarries, as they have been termed, in constructing 

 which the earth is removed out of the way to the 

 surface. Sometimes a mole will lay out a second or 

 even a third road, in order to the extension of its 

 operations. Sometimes several individuals use one 

 road in common, though they never trespass on each 

 other's hunting grounds. In the event of common 

 usage, if two moles should happen to meet, one must 

 retreat into the nearest alley, unless both should be 

 pugnacious; in which case the weakest is often slain. 

 In forming this tunnel, the mole's instinct supplies the 

 place of science, for he drives it at a greater or less depth, 

 according to the quality of the soil or concurrent cir- 

 cumstances. When there is nothing superincumbent 

 threatening a disturbance of its security, it is often 

 excavated at a depth of some four or five inches ; but 

 if it is carried under a road or a stream, a foot and a 

 half of earth, sometimes more, is left above it. Thus 

 does the little animal carry on the subterraneous works 

 necessary for his support, travelling, and comfort ; and 

 his tunnels never fall in. The alleys opening out from 

 the sides of the high road have generally a somewhat 

 downward inclination, from their commencement 

 towards their end. It has been observed, that when 

 on opening one of these alleys, a plentiful supply of 

 food is found, the mole proceeds to work out branch- 

 alleys from its termination, upheaving new molehills 

 as it advances in quest of prey. Should, however, the 

 soil be barren of the means of existence, the animal 

 commences another alley at a different part of the high 

 road. The quality and humidity of the soil, which 

 regulate the abundance of earthworms, determine the 

 greater or less depth of the alleys. The mainroad 

 being the highway of communication to its different 

 hunting grounds, it is necessarily passed through regu- 

 larly in the course of the day, and it is in this road that 

 the molecatcher sets his traps, or practises his devices 

 to intercept the animal between its habitation and the 

 alley where it is carrying on its labours. Some mole- 

 catchers will tell you that the hours when the moles 

 move are influenced by the tides ; to which statement 

 the reader is at liberty to give as much credence as 

 he chooses. Besides the various traps which are set 

 for them, there is, or very lately was, a man who 

 travelled the country with a dog, and destroyed them 

 without any trap at all, by the following process : 

 Taking his station at the proper time and place, 

 attended by his dog, and armed with a spear or spud, 

 he waits till the dog indicates the presence of the mole, 

 and then spears or spuds the animal out as it moves in 

 its run. Pointers will stop at moles as steadily as at 

 game, when the former are straying on the surface." 

 So much for the observations of Le Court, quoted by 

 Ogilby, whose description appears to have been 

 borrowed from Geoffroy St. Hilaire's abridged account 

 of the original discoveries, as recorded in his " Cours 

 d' Histoire Naturelle des Mammiferes." The mole is 

 an extremely voracious animal, and it would further 

 appear from Le Court's investigations, that its appe- 

 tite is exalted into a regular passion, which occasionally 

 rises to such a pitch that the desire is accompanied 

 with violent excitement. A species of madness seems 

 to take possession of the entire frame, as it furiously 



rushes upon its prey. Its food is exclusively animal. 

 It is true, and worthy of remark, that this point has 

 been a subject of dispute, but the united testimony 

 of several distinguished naturalists, has conclusively 

 shown that the vegetable debris sometimes found in 

 its stomach, must be regarded as mere accidental 

 accumulations, consisting of fragments of roots and 

 other vegetable matters, which have been swallowed 

 along with its appropriate insect food. After advanc- 

 ing some very acute reasonings on this subject, Mr. Bell 

 remarks, that " the principal object of its search is the 

 earthworm. 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 Scarabaeidae and other 

 coleopterous 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. 

 Geoffroy gives a curious picture of the manner in which 

 it will approach, seize, and devour a small bird ex- 

 hibiting, in the first place, a considerable exercise of 

 stratagem to get within reach of its victim, and chang- 

 ing on an instant this mode of approach for the most 

 sudden and impetuous attack ; seizing the hapless ) ird 

 by the belly, tearing it open, thrusting its muzzle 

 amongst the entrails, where it appears to luxuriate on 

 its bloody repast. Even the weaker of its own species, 

 under particular circumstances, are not exempted from 

 this promiscuous ferocity ; for if two moles be placed 

 together in a box without a very plentiful supply of 

 food, the weaker certainly falls a prey to the stronger. 

 No thorough-bred bulldog keeps a firmer hold of the 

 object of its attack than the mole. Mr. Jackson, a 

 very intelligent molecatcher, says that, when a boy, 

 " his hand was so severely and firmly laid hold of by 

 one, that he was obliged to use his teeth in order to 

 loosen its hold. It is not only in the warm and tem- 

 perate seasons of the year, when the food of the mole 

 is of comparatively easy access and exists in great 

 plenty, that its labours are steadily and regularly fol- 

 lowed; in the winter, when the frost has penetrated 

 deeply into the soil, and the ordinary hunting grounds 

 are rendered useless and impracticable, it descends to 

 a considerable depth by a perpendicular shaft, till it 

 arrives at the part to which the earthworms have 

 been driven by the cold. Here its labours must be 

 even more toilsome and less productive than ordinary ; 

 but the voracity of this indefatigable gourmand must 

 still be appeased : and as it lays up no store for the 

 winter, and cannot fast with impunity for more than 

 a few hours, it may well be imagined how incessantly 

 and laboriously it must work in such a season, and at 

 so great a depth, to obtain a sufficient supply of worms 

 to satisfy its insatiable craving. This rage of hunger 

 alternates with the most profound repose, which the 

 animal enjoys either within its fortress, during the sea- 



