MOLES. 339 



by which not only are the roots of the plants disturbed, but the whole row may be 

 dried up. Moreover, it appears pretty certain that field- voles will take advantage 

 of runs driven in such localities as convenient points from which to make inroads 

 on the sprouting seeds or the roots of the young plants. Then, again, in addition 

 to the unsightliness of a host of mole-hills in a garden, such elevations are incon- 

 venient in a field of standing grass, as they impede the process of mowing. From 

 these and other circumstances, farmers and gardeners generally unite in a war of 

 extermination against the mole, although there caif be no doubt but that in many 

 respects its visits are a distinct advantage to its destroyers. 



It is well known that male moles are more numerous than females, and this 

 seems to be explained by a writer in the Field newspaper, who states that a family 

 " of moles appears to consist of five members, in the proportion of four males to one 

 female this as a rule, though with many exceptions. In the course of my experience 

 I have never caught more than five in succession in the same run ; and this, there- 

 fore, appears to be the limit." It is well known that moles have the habit of 

 feeding at regular hours during the day, and that they may be found at work 

 at eight, twelve, and four o'clock. In regard to mole-catching, it is mentioned 

 that, " when setting a trap in light crumbling soil, as in a flower-bed, care should 

 be taken to remove only sufficient earth to allow of the trap being put in, and 

 the hole leading each way should be carefully cleared, so as to allow the mole 

 a free passage, or he will infallibly dive underneath your trap. A piece of slate 

 put at the bottom of the run is a good preventive of this kind of thing." Like their 

 North American relatives, moles swim well, and will take to the water readily. 



According to Mr. Blanford, the short-tailed mole, which is abundant near the 

 Himalayan station of Darjiling, at elevations of from about five thousand to eight 

 thousand feet above the sea-level, " inhabits the deep bed of black vegetable mould 

 found wherever the original forest has not been destroyed. This mould contains 

 earth-worms and larvae of insects, the chief food of moles, in abundance. Jerdon 

 noticed that the runs of T. micrwa often proceeded from the base of one great oak 

 to that of another. Such runs are not marked by mole-hills, as in the case of the 

 European species." 



Fossil moles are found throughout the Tertiary strata of Europe 

 from the Upper Eocene deposits of Central France. As far down as 

 the succeeding Lower Miocene beds these extinct species seem to belong to the 

 existing genus Talpa, but the Upper Eocene species, on account of the arm-bone 

 (humerus) being rather less expanded, has been regarded as representing a distinct 

 genus, Protalpa. The occurrence of these Tertiary moles is interesting, as they 

 show how extremely ancient must be the insectivorous type of Mammals, since even 

 at those early epochs the remarkable peculiarities distinctive of the skeletons of 

 the existing members of the group had already attained their nearly complete 

 development. 

 Yellow-Tailed Our notice of the Mole family may conclude by a reference to the 



Mole. yellow-tailed mole (Scaptonyx fuscicaudatus) of Eastern Tibet. This 

 mole, which has only two pairs of lower incisor teeth, and consequently but forty- 

 two teeth altogether, differs from the true moles in the considerably lesser width of 

 the fore-feet, and thus approaches the mole-shrews noticed on p. 334. 



