46 THE COMMON MOLE. 



chiefly by the force of the hands and arms, a little by the back 

 of the head, but not at all by the snout. The hinder legs had 

 but little force, except for progression -, but they were not un- 

 frequently employed to scratch the body. In the forward half of 

 the body it is probable that this animal exerts more force, in 

 proportion to its size, than any other creature in existence. For 

 several hours this pair were exceedingly active, but they were 

 unable to climb ; and in passing each other beneath the straw, 

 they seemed to be quarrelsome, the conquered sending forth a 

 stridulous squeak. When, at last, one of this pair effected its 

 escape, it was by turning the wire backward, not by thrusting it 

 before it. It then passed through a hole in the floor, and finally 

 through a crevice in the stone step leading to the street, thrust- 

 ing much earth before it. From the orifice thus opened, it 

 passed over five or six feet of the pavement, and then began to 

 burrow ; but as often as an attempt was made to seize it, it 

 returned to the hole by which it had emerged, as rapidly and 

 directly as if in possession of perfect sight. When placed in 

 rather hard ground in a garden, it began to burrow horizontally 

 by thrusting the earth above, and at the sides $ but the mouth 

 of the burrow was not closed by a heap of earth until above an 

 hour ; consequently, in finally filling the orifice, the earth must 

 have been brought from within. In all these actions, the tail 

 was carried erect."* 



The mole is most active in throwing up its hillocks of earth 

 immediately before rain or a thaw, because worms and insects 

 then begin to be in motion, and approach those parts of the 

 surface which will afford them a supply of decayed vegetal 

 matter, as under the dung of cattle, which by smothering the 

 herbage has caused it to decay. To such spots the worms 

 repair, and are soon pursued by the mole. The translator of 

 Henderson's edition of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom says, that the 

 mole skins the worms, stripping off the integument from end to 

 end, and that then " the contents are squeezed out by pressure 

 on the part of the mole." 



* Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii. p. 104. 



