190 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



stomach contents reveals remains of weevils, caterpillars, lepidopterous 

 pupa, adult lepidopteran, leg fragments of orthopteran, tipulid larva, 

 centipede, spider. Dipterous and lepidopterous remains form the major 

 portion (in one case 60 per cent). Animals caught in traps showed 

 preference for meat bait." 10 Anatomically adapted to feeding upon in- 

 sects. 



ORDER INSECTIVORA MOLES, SHREWS, HEDGEHOGS 

 FAMILY TALPI DAE MOLES 



Moles are accused of damaging newly planted corn and injuring 

 potatoes and other field and garden crops and bulbs, but they usually 

 simply push the bulbs, tubers and other roots aside without much in- 

 jury as they burrow their tunnels, mice entering the tunnels and doing 

 most of the damage by eating the roots, the diet of the moles being 

 "composed largely of insects and earthworms." 1 One month after 

 Townsend's moles were released in a newly planted garden, 30 out of 

 70 of their tunnels were in possession of field mice and one each pos- 

 sessed by rats, gophers and ground squirrels, the rodents destroying 

 the seeds, but "seeds and vegetables were never found in the stomachs 

 of moles taken from newly planted or growing gardens." 2 Their tun- 

 nels and mounds, however, do certainly disfigure lawns and do some 

 damage to pastures, gardens and fields, in addition to providing run- 

 ways which enable mice to get at the roots, though on the other hand 

 the resulting soil turnover is of some advantage to the land in certain 

 places. 3 In 65 days a captive mole made 1252 pits, an average of 19 

 daily. 4 In discussing the large amount of food eaten by moles, Hisaw 

 says: 



When the amount of work that a mole is capable of doing in a single night 

 is considered, one can readily see the necessity for such stupendous amounts 

 of food. Lydekker (1901) mentions the formation of a burrow about TOO 

 yards long during a single night. If a man weighing 160 pounds were to do 



10 Gregory, On the "habitus" and "heritage" of Caenolestes, Journ. Mammalogy, 

 in, 106-114, 1922. 



1 Howell, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 45, p. 20, 1921. Couch, Mice and moles, Journ. 

 Mammalogy, v, 264, 1924. Scheffer, The common mole of the eastern United States, 

 Farmers' Bull., No. 583, 1914; Farmers' Bull, No. 1247, p. 12, 1922. 



2 Wight, Food habits of Townsend's mole, Scapanus townsendii (Bachman), 

 Journ. Mammalogy, ix, 19-33, 1928. 



3 Grinnell, The burrowing rodents of California as agents in soil formation, 

 Journ. Mammalogy, iv, 137-149, 1923 ; Ann. Kept. Smithsonian Inst. for 1923, pp. 

 339-35 - See also a preceding chapter on relation of mammals to soil turnover, etc. 



4 Hisaw, Observations on the burrowing habits of moles (Scalopus aquaticus 

 machrinoides), Journ. Mammalogy, iv, 79-88, 1923. 



