220 THE UNIVERSE. 



exterminators again are found among the carnivorous mam- 

 mals and birds. 



At the head of these protectors of agriculture must be 

 placed, at the present day, the mole, the habits of which 

 have been for a long time misunderstood. 



Far from being hurtful to the products of the earth, it is 

 one of their most effective guardians ; occupied from morn 



110. Common European Mole : Talpa Europcea (Linnaeus). 



to night in devouring all the enemies of their roots, it never 

 attacks a root itself. 



The food of the mole is composed of cockchafer grubs, 

 of mole-crickets, and insects of all kinds. A naturalist has 

 calculated that a mole devours annually 20,000 grubs. But 

 the animal on which it declares war most savagely of all is 

 the earth-worm. It is so voracious that it must eat every 

 six hours. No animal is so favored in its carnivorous in- 

 stincts as the mole ; forty-four teeth, studded with points, 



