THE MOLE. 



423 



suitable to seizing and retaining their prey. Accordingly, on opening the mouth of a 

 mole, a shrew, or a hedgehog, we find that none of the teeth are provided with flattened 

 surfaces for the purpose of grinding the food, but that even the molar teeth are covered 

 with sharp points, which are admirably suited for piercing and retaining their active 

 prey, or for tearing it to pieces when it has been killed. All the insectivorous animals 

 are plantigrade in their walk. 



Some of these creatures, such as the shrew, present so close an external resemblance 

 to the common mice, that they are popularly supposed to belong to the same class, and 

 are called by the same general name. Many species live beneath the surface of the 

 earth, and seek in that dark hunting-ground the prey which cannot be enticed to the 

 surface in sufficient numbers to supply adequate nourishment for the ever-hungry 

 worm-devourers. 



MOLE. Ta/pa Europcea. 



OF all the insect-eating animals there is none which is better known by name than 

 the common MOLE, and very few which are less known by their true character. 



On inspecting a living Mole that has been captured on the surface of the earth, and 

 comparing it with the multitudinous creatures that find their subsistence on the earth's 

 surface, rejoicing in the full light of day, and free to wander as they please, we cannot 

 but feel some emotions of surprise at the sight of a creature which is naturally debarred 

 from all these sources of gratification, and which passes its life in darkness below the 

 surface of the ground. 



Yet this pity, natural though it be, will be entirely thrown away, for there is scarcely 

 any creature that lives which is better fitted for enjoyment, or which is urged by more 

 fiery passions. Dull and harmless as it may appear to be, it is in reality one of the 

 most ferocious animals in existence, and will engage in the fiercest combats upon very 

 slight provocation. While thus employed, its whole faculties are so entirely absorbed 

 in its thirst for revenge, that it will leave the subterraneous shafts which it has been so 

 busily excavating, and join battle with its foe in the full light of day. Should one of 

 the combatants overpower and kill the other, the victorious Mole springs upon the 

 vanquished enemy, tears its body open, and eagerly plunging its nose into the wound, 

 drinks the blood of its slaughtered enemy, and feasts richly on the sanguine banquet. 



Such a combat was lately witnessed by one of my friends, who kindly wrote the 

 account of the proceeding, and of the fate of one of the combatants. 



