The Story-Book of the Fields 



Also, the animal has a monstrous appetite 

 and a furious digestion, which in twelve 

 hours require an amount of food equal to 

 its own weight. The existence of the mole 

 is one of gluttonous madness, ever reviving 

 and never satisfied. If the animal fasts for 

 a few hours it will die of starvation. On 

 what can it depend to allay the torment of 

 such a stomach, where food passes, dissolves, 

 and disappears at once ? On the larvae that 

 live in the ground, and most of all on those 

 of the cockchafer, as tender and fat as they 

 can be. They are small for such an appetite, 

 but their number makes up for their size. 

 Then what an extermination of grubs must 

 be effected by the mole, since the ground is 

 full of this small prey ! One meal is scarcely 

 finished before the next begins, and dozens 

 are consumed on each occasion. There is 

 no helper equal to the mole for ridding a 

 field of these formidable destroyers. It is 

 unfortunate that in order to reach the vermin 

 on which it feeds, it is obliged to dig among 

 the roots inhabited by its prey. Roots which 

 interrupt its work are cut through, plants are 

 torn up, and the earth from the excavated 

 galleries is collected in mole hills, which hinder 

 the work of the scythe when the hay is cut. 



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