336 INSECTIVORES. 



multitude of tortuous galleries, which wind about in every direction, and sometimes 

 come so near the siu-face as barely to escape opening upon it, while at other times 

 they are several inches deep. Along the most superficial of these horizontal 

 burrows the earth is actually thi-own up in the form of long ridges, by wliich the 

 animal's progi-ess can be traced. The distance that they can thus travel in a given 

 time is almost incredible. Audubon and Bachman state that thej* have been 

 known, in a single night after a rain, to execute a gallery several yards in length : 

 and I have myself traced a fresh one nearly one hundi-ed yards. The only method 

 by which we can arrive at a just appreciation of the magnitude of this labour is h\ 

 comparison ; and computation shows that, in oixler to perfoi-m equivalent work, a 

 man would have to excavate in a single niglit a timnel thirty-seven miles long, and 

 of sufficient size to easily admit of the passage of his body." 



The Hairy-Tailed Moles. 



Genus Scapanus. 



The hairj^-tailed moles, of which there are two species inhabiting the United 

 States, form a connecting link between the web-footed and the star-nosed moles, 

 having the general external appearance of the former, but the same number (forty- 

 four) of teeth as in tlie lattei'. The habits of the common hairy-tailed mole 

 (S. americamis) appear veiy similar to those of the web -footed moles; both 

 inhabiting dry meadow-land in preference to the swampy ground affected by the 

 star-nosed mole. The mounds of the hairy -tailed moles do not, however, contain 

 the central and surface opening of those of the web-footed moles ; neither do the 

 fonner animals indulge in the midday excui"sions so characteristic of the former. 



The Star-Nosed Mole. 



Genus Condylura. 



The last of the three genera of North American moles is represented only 

 by a single species, the star-nosed mole {Condylura cristata), so called on account 

 of the peculiar ring of riband-like appendages surix)unding the end of the muzzle, 

 in the middle of wliich are situated the nostrils. In addition to this featm-e, this 

 mole is characterised by the tail being nearly as long as the body, and also by the 

 circumstance that the bones of the tenninal joints of the fingere are not cleft at 

 their extremities, as they are in the Old World moles. Like the latter, the star- 

 nosed mole possesses the tj'pical number of forty-four teetL In length this species 

 measures alx)ut 5 inches, exclusive of the tail. 



The food of this mole consists entirely of earth-worms and insects, 



Ha.bits 



and its habits are very similar to those of the web-footed mole, although 



it does not apparenth- make such extensive excavations, and the hillocks thrown up 



from the runs are of larger size. In gardens and arable land these moles tunnel 



near the surface, throwing up a ridge of loose earth along the line of their tunnels, 



but in pasture land they work at a lower level In both these respects they 



