42 THE COMMON MOLE. 



European Continent;* but it is not found in the northern extre- 

 mity of Scotland, the islands of Orkney, Zetland, nor Ireland. 

 As it is very numerous in every kind of soil in England, even 

 including the peat-bogs of Staffordshire and other counties, those 

 writers must be mistaken who assert that its total absence from 

 Ireland is owing to the boggy nature of that country. 



The length of the mole is about five inches and a quarter. The 

 body is thick, long, and nearly cylindrical. The fur is as soft 

 as silk, short, and black , but it is liable to great variation from 

 its proper colour, some specimens having been found of a white 

 or cream-colour $ some of a silvery ash-grey with an orange 

 mark under the lower jaw, and a line of the same colour down 

 the belly ; some of a perfectly orange -colour, except the head j 

 and others of an orange-colour throughout. All the hairs of 

 the fur grow in a perpendicular position, so that they can easily 

 be made to lie in any direction, and can offer no resistance what- 

 ever to the animal's retrograde or forward movements through 

 its burrows. Its head tapers to the end of the nose, which is 

 well fitted for boring in the ground, the nostrils being strength- 

 ened by a little bone at the extremity - } its fore-feet are very 

 strong and robust, and admirably constructed and articulated 

 for digging j its tail is nearly an inch and a quarter in length, 

 scaly, rather bristly, and is raised or laid over the back when the 

 creature is burrowing 



Though the mole has no outward ears, but only an auditory aper- 

 ture on either side of the head, it is remarkably quick of hearing ; 

 and Franzius says, that if we make a noise down a hole in the 

 earth " the mole will hear it a great way off -, as we hear any one 

 speaking through a hollow pipe better than in the open air." f 



Its eyelids are only partially open j and its eyes are black, and 

 very small. " A slight depression serves as an orbit. There is 

 no optic nerve j but its place is supplied by a branch from the 



* The common mole of America is the ScalopSjCanadensis, which so much 

 resembles our mole in exterior appearance that. one may be easily mistaken 

 for the other. 



f History of Brutes, translated by N. W. (1670), p. 248. 



