130 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



secured specimens a good many times in this way, 

 but, of course, approach to where they are at work 

 must be very carefully made. 



Not long ago I caught one in a field close to 

 London in this way, and took him home in my 

 pocket and turned him loose in a zinc pail full 

 of mould. He instantly burrowed out of sight, 

 and I saw no more of him for two or three 

 hours. 



In the dusk of evening, however, he began to 

 bestir himself, and I could hear his claws scraping 

 against the sides of the pail. I knew that he was 

 hungry, and at once commenced to search for 

 some acceptable morsel in the way of a supper 

 for him. I was fortunate enough to find a 

 number of large blackbeetles feasting on a piece 

 of fat mutton at the bottom of a jar, and turned 

 one out upon the mould in the pail. He raced 

 wildly round and round once or twice, and then 

 hid up in the shadow of a wee clod. Directly he 

 stopped the mole's little red snout popped up 

 right beneath him, and he quickly disappeared. 

 I was greatly astonished at the precision with 

 which the mole located the position of his prey, 

 and tried the experiment over and over again, 

 but always with the same result. 



Of course, it is very difficult to say whether 

 his movements were guided by scent or sound; I 

 am inclined to think the latter, but in either case 

 the marvellous knowledge which he displayed in 



