Pupa-digging 93 



are eagerly sought after, the skill of the Mole as a pupae 

 hunter being well known to every entomologist who has 

 had recourse to " digging." Too often he finds the ground 

 round some favourably placed tree, beneath which he 

 himself would dig, already so thoroughly ransacked by a 

 Mole as to make it waste of time for him to try it. Indeed, 

 so systematically does a Mole do his work, that it seems 

 surprising that so many insects, which pass their penultimate 

 stages in the ground, should escape. Pupa-digging is rather 

 fascinating work, and, when taken up by schoolboys, usually 

 begets a language of its own. In my day, the digger became 

 a " puper " ; and the following verse, inscribed in my old 

 copy of that most useful little booklet, Green's Insect-hunter s 

 Companion, is so germane of the subject that it may be 

 quoted here. 



" There, all chilly and cold, on a dull autumn day, 



See the puper at work with his tool, 

 How engrossed he examines each handful of clay, 



And each bunch of dry leaves the poor fool 

 Need not feel disappointment because he espies 



No pupae 'neath that tree, spread o'er him, 

 He's a novice indeed if he don't recognise 



That a mole has been busy before him." 



The following notes on the habits of the Mole are chiefly 

 from the experience of an old professional mole-catcher, an 

 acknowledged authority on the subject in his district, and 

 have in almost every detail been borne out by my own 

 observations, whenever opportunity has occurred to disprove 

 or establish them. Moles, this person believed, are either 

 monogamous, or where one male may have more than a 

 single wife, he caters for all his progeny equally. In such 

 cases of polygamy, the same hillock shelters the nests of all 

 his wives. Two nests have frequently been found in the 

 same hill, each containing young, and more rarely three, 

 but never more ; and where traps have been set, two or 

 three females have sometimes been caught, but never more 

 than a single male. Always, however, there is one male in 

 attendance. Four is about the average number of a litter. 



