The Mole. 53 



grass. In this she brings up her young, usually from 

 four to six in number, and provides for them until 

 they are able to take care of themselves. Some good 

 examples of the mole's nest may be seen in the 

 museum at Liverpool. 



The colour of the mole is usually of a blackish grey, 

 somewhat paler upon the under side, although it varies 

 to a considerable extent. Some specimens have been 

 found of a pure white, and pale varieties are by no 

 means uncommonly taken. 



Putting on one side the immense benefit conferred 

 upon the farmer by the wholesale destruction of 

 'wireworms,' the larvae of the cockchafer and daddy- 

 long-legs, which, feeding upon the roots of the crops, 

 cause wholesale devastation, the mole is of the greatest 

 service to the agriculturist in more ways than one. 



His complicated network of subterranean passages, 

 daily and hourly extended, not only forms a nearly 

 perfect system of subsoil drainage, which could with 

 difficulty be equalled by human labour, but the fresh 

 earth brought continually to the surface from a con- 

 siderable depth below the reach of the plough or 

 spade, acts almost like manure in increasing the fer- 

 tility of the land, and renders it capable of nourishing 

 the crops with which it is planted. All that is neces- 

 sary in a mole-inhabited meadow is to apply a rake to 

 the heaps of earth, and spread them evenly over all 

 parts of the field, in order that every yard shall receive 

 its due share. 



In yet another way does the mole prove himself 

 the friend of the farmer, for by means of the loosened 

 earth the air is enabled to reach the roots of the 

 plants, where it is so much needed, and where it 

 would have little chance of reaching were it not for 

 the beneficent and untiring labours of the mole. 



With such claims upon the farmer, it seems strange 



