136 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



five or six inches vertically, then angle off horizontally. 

 The inside of the cavity, cylindrical, and exactly two 

 inches in diameter, was smooth as that of a new-laid 

 drain-pipe. Of course, I knew it to be a " mole run/' 

 though not of the ordinary kind; instead, an upward 

 shaft, made by the animal for nocturnal excursions over 

 the pastures around. I have heard and read of the mole 

 concealing this door of outcoming and ingoing, with earth 

 heaped over, fearing betrayal by it. There is no truth 

 in the statement; there is nothing around the circular 

 orifice of the cavity, which is clean cut as the entrance to 

 a sand swallow's nest. Throughout the winter such 

 holes are never seen ; for then the mole has no business 

 above ground. It comes to the surface in winter too, 

 but not every night, or with such frequency as to make a 

 beaten path like that above described. 



These summer holes of exit and entrance, well known 

 to the mole-catcher, receive attention from him. They may 

 be old, and out of use, or moles may be passing out and 

 into them every night. For ascertaining the truth about 

 this, and to save him the trouble of setting extra traps, a 

 skilled talparius will lay two or three straws athwart the 

 orifice, and await the result. If, after a time, the straws 

 have been pushed out of place, or otherwise disturbed, 

 then the inference is that a mole must have done it, and 

 down goes a trap into the "run/' the setter of it feeling 

 pretty sure that on his next visit he will find the trigger 

 sprung, and a dead mole squeezed flat between the iron 

 grippers. 



On 21st of December shortest day in the year 

 my ploughman, while resting his team on turning at the 

 headland, saw two moles issue out of the bank close 

 by, one evidently pursuing the other, as shown by 



