HOW IT IS MADE 



not appear to be greatly influenced in his choice of quarters 

 by anything else. Sometimes his runs are made in soft, 

 loose soil, at others in sand so hard that a spade can scarcely 

 be made to penetrate it, heavy stones weighing as much as a 

 quarter of a pound being turned out, all of which goes to 

 show that he is a very expert digger. Having decided where 

 he will make his home, he first digs a globular hole a few 

 inches below the surface of the ground, and as he digs he 

 pushes the earth on to the surface of the ground, by way of 

 a tunnel which runs upwards from the nest chamber. Mr. 

 Adams says : " When this superincumbent earth has reached 

 an inconvenient height another tunnel is made, sometimes 

 from another part of the nest cavity, but more often side- 

 ways from the first upward tunnel. All this takes time, and 

 the mole meanwhile makes fresh runs from the fortress, the 

 seat of its labour, in various directions in search of food. 

 Much of the earth displaced in making these fresh runs 

 falls into the nest cavity, and has to be disposed of in the 

 same way as before. Now the tunnel (or tunnels) leading 

 upwards from the nest cavity becomes longer and longer, 

 winding round under the surface of the growing fortress. 

 The tunnels in the fortress are for two distinct purposes: 



(a) Tunnels to eject earth from the nest cavity and bolt run. 

 These are generally in the shape of a cockscrew ascending 

 from the nest, and often diverging into blind terminals. 



(b) Tunnels not connected directly with the nest cavity, but 

 traversing the fortress from runs outside it. Through these 

 tunnels the mole has brought the earth to heap over the 

 nest, and they seldom occur except in boggy land, where the 

 nest is of necessity near the surface of the ground, or even 

 in the centre of the piled-up mound. 



"The nest cavity is roughly spherical, about the size of 

 a large cottage loaf, and quite smooth from constant friction 



36 



