THE COMMON MOLE. 47 



Besides worms, it eats grubs j and it will exercise considerable 

 stratagem to get within reach of small birds, mice, lizards, and 

 frogs, and when it has got near enough it springs upon them 

 most furiously ; and, having seized them, it tears them open, 

 and, intruding its muzzle among their entrails, begins its bloody 

 feast. 



A mole which was kept in a tub of earth for several days, 

 never came to the surface, except for its food. " It fed on 

 bread, little pieces of roast meat, pieces of fruit, and several 

 other things. One day it was given some dead minnows, which 

 it licked all over with its tongue, and then ate. A cup of water 

 having been placed in the earth, in his tub, in such a manner that 

 the top of the cup was level with the earth, he soon came up, 

 looked all round timidly, and began to drink very eagerly. The 

 moment he saw he was observed, he buried himself -, but he 

 quickly returned to the water. He was fierce, and when touched, 

 he squeaked like a rat, and tried to bite with his sharp teeth."* 



The mole is not only an expeditious excavator, and a tolerable 

 runner, but also an expert swimmer: "At the Loch of Clunie," 

 says Mr. Arthur Bruce, " I often observed upon a small island, 

 at the distance of 180 yards from the nearest land, the appear- 

 ance of fresh mole-hills. The gardener of Lord Airly, the pro- 

 prietor of the island, told me he had caught one or two moles 

 lately. Five or six years previously he caught two, and for two 

 years after this he had observed none. But about four years 

 ago, coming ashore one summer's evening in the dusk, he and 

 the butler saw, at a short distance, upon the smooth water, some 

 animal paddling to, and not far distant from, the island. They 

 found it to be a common mole, making its passage from the 

 nearest point of land (the Castle-hill), to take possession of this 

 desert island. It had been, at the time of my visit, for the space 

 of two years, quite free from any subterraneous inhabitant ; but 

 the mole has for more than a year past, appeared again, and its 

 operations I have since witnessed/'f 



* The Parent's Cabinet of Amusement, No. xvii. p. 220. 

 t Linneean Transactions, vol. iii. 



