STRANGE DWELLTNGS. 



caught without the least difficulty. A few days before writing 

 this account, I heard that a pair of Moles were thus taken in 

 the fields near Erith, and one of my friends made a similar 

 capture on Shooter's Hill. 



Indeed, the whole life of the Mole is one of fury, and he eats 

 like a starving tiger, tearing and rending his prey with claws and 

 teeth, and crunching audibly the body of the worm between the 

 sharp points. Some writers say that the Mole eats snails and 

 other molluscs, but I am disposed to doubt that assertion. I 

 have kept several Moles and never saw them eat anything but 

 worms. They even rejected the julus millipede, kicking it aside 

 with utter contempt. 



It is also asserted that the Mole skins the worm before he 

 eats it, ' stripping the skin from end to end, and squeezing out 

 the contents of the body.' To prove a negative is proverbially 

 a difficult task, and therefore I will not venture to say that the 

 Mole does not trouble himself about stripping off the skin of 

 the worm. I do not see how he could do so, for even with the 

 assistance of knives, scissors and forceps, such a task presents 

 many difficulties, and how the Mole is to succeed in such an 

 undertaking with no tools but his teeth and claws, I cannot 

 comprehend. No Mole that I have ever seen, gave the 

 slightest indication of skinning or emptying the worm, but 

 proceeded without the least ceremony to devour the writhing 

 prey, and then looked out for another victim. 



It is hardly possible to conceive, and quite impossible to 

 describe the fury with which the Mole eats. It hunches its 

 back in a most curious manner, retracts the head between the 

 shoulders, and uses its fore paws to assist it in pushing the 

 worm into its jaws. In this respect there is a singular resem- 

 blance between the Mole and the carnivorous chelodines of 

 America. I have kept several of them, and have always noticed 

 that they ate exactly after the fashion employed by the Mole, 

 seizing their food in their jaws, and tearing it to pieces by the 

 aid of the armed fore paws — one foot being applied at each side 

 of the mouth, so as to push the food forwards, while the head 

 draws it back. 



