336 INSECTIVORES. 



multitude of tortuous galleries, which wind about in every direction, and sometimes 

 come so near the surface as barely to escape opening upon it, while at other times 

 they are several inches deep. Along the most superficial of these horizontal 

 burrows the earth is actually thrown up in the form of long ridges, by which the 

 animal's progress can be traced. The distance that they can thus travel in a given 

 time is almost incredible. Audubon and Bachman state that they have been 

 known, in a single night after a rain, to execute a gallery several yards in length ; 

 and I have myself traced a fresh one nearly one hundred yards. The only method 

 by which we can arrive at a just appreciation of the magnitude of this labour is by 

 comparison ; and computation shows that, in order to perform equivalent work, a 

 man would have to excavate in a single night a tunnel thirty-seven miles long, and 

 of sufficient size to easily admit of the passage of his body." 



THE HAIRY-TAILED MOLES. 

 Genus Scapanus. 



The hairy-tailed moles, of which there are two species inhabiting the United 

 States, form a connecting link between the web-footed and the star-nosed moles, 

 having the general external appearance of the former, but the same number (forty- 

 four) of teeth as in the latter. The habits of the common hairy-tailed mole 

 (8. americanus) appear very similar to those of the web -footed moles; both 

 inhabiting dry meadow-land in preference to the swampy ground affected by the 

 star-nosed mole. The mounds of the hairy -tailed moles do not, however, contain 

 the central and surface opening of those of the web-footed moles ; neither do the 

 former animals indulge in the midday excursions so characteristic of the former. 



THE STAR-NOSED MOLE. 

 Genus Condylura. 



The last of the three genera of North American moles is represented only 

 by a single species, the star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata), so called on account 

 of the peculiar ring of riband-like appendages surrounding the end of the muzzle, 

 in the middle of which are situated the nostrils. In addition to this feature, this 

 mole is characterised by the tail being nearly as long as the body, and also by the 

 circumstance that the bones of the terminal joints of the fingers are not cleft at 

 their extremities, as they are in the Old World moles. Like the latter, the star- 

 nosed mole possesses the typical number of forty-four teeth. In length this species 

 measures about 5 inches, exclusive of the tail. 



The food of this mole consists entirely of earth-worms and insects, 

 and its habits are very similar to those of the web-footed mole, although 

 it does not apparently make such extensive excavations, and the hillocks thrown up 

 from the runs are of larger size. In gardens and arable land these moles tunnel 

 near the surface, throwing up a ridge of loose earth along the line of their tunnels, 

 but in pasture land they work at a lower level. In both these respects they 



