78 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



found indiscriminately in a field, but in such places 

 only as afford a supply of decayed vegetable matter 

 upon which they feed. In pastures, accordingly, they 

 always crowd to the droppings of cattle, under which 

 the herbage is smothered, and more or less in a state 

 of decomposition. Now to these haunts of the earth- 

 worms, we have observed the mole generally finds its 

 way, not by searching for them on the surface, and 

 then burrowing under them, a process we could 

 easily understand, but by a direct route under ground. 

 The droppings of cows, it is true, have a rather strong 

 and penetrating musky odour ; but it is very ques- 

 tionable, we think, whether it is possible for this to 

 become diffused under ground at the depth of several 

 inches, and to the extent of several yards. Yet we 

 have seen as many as three mole-tracks, each from 

 an opposite direction, terminating in the same cow's 

 dropping, like radii to a centre. But even if the 

 odour were proved to be diffused under ground, that 

 would not serve to account for the moles directing 

 their courses in the same way to the under surface of 

 stones, another favourite resort of the worms*. 



The woodcock (Scolopax rusticola, CHARLET), 

 which feeds upon earth-worms, exhibits equal dexterity 

 with the mole in discovering them. " These birds," 

 as Colonel Montagu says, " rambling through the 

 dark, are directed by an exquisite sense of smelling 

 to those places most likely to produce their natural 

 sustenance, and by a still more exquisite sense of 

 feeling in their long bill collecting their food. The 

 eye is not called into use, for, like the mole, they 

 actually feed below the surface ; and, by the sensibility 

 of the instrument which is thrust into the soft earth, 

 not a worm can escape that is within reach. A wood- 

 cock in our menagerie/' he adds, " very soon dis- 

 covered and drew forth every worm in the ground, 

 * J. R. 



