THE ZooLoGist—JuNE, 1875. 4493 
Moles and Mole-catching.—In a tract of meadow land in Norfolk, which 
lies below the level of a tidal river, and is, therefore, preserved from being 
submerged by artificial embankments, the mole is not infrequent, although 
he is regarded by the occupiers with great disfavour. In addition to his 
ordinary sin of making the grass land difficult to mow, he has an ugly trick 
of boring into the river-walls; and, by loosening the sods which hold these 
walls together, he imperils the walls themselves. Mole-catchers are, there- 
fore, in great request, and a few minutes spent in company with one have 
taught me a lesson on the mole’s history which was quite new to me. 
March is the breeding month of the mole; and in preparation for the 
appearance of the youug ones, stores of fresh meat in the shape of worms 
have been laid up under hills, larger than the ordinary mole-hills, but in the 
open marsh, which an experienced eye readily recognises. The mole-catcher 
(in whose company I found myself accidentally) is employed to poison moles, 
and the food in which he puts his poison is the common earthworm. Sooner 
than spend his time in digging for those on the upland, he had come down 
to the marsh to rob the mole’s larders, and he hit on these with the sagacity 
of a terrier sniffing at a rabbit’s burrow, and did not open a hill in vain 
when I was with him. He chose the largest hills, which were on the 
highest spots on the marsh, and opening one in my presence, he laid bare 
a round cavity, the sides of which were beaten hard by the mole so as to 
prevent the worms from attempting to pierce their way out. Inside this 
there was nearly a quart of fine worms, quite free from any admixture of 
soil, each worm apparently tied up in a coil or knot, yet all alive: upon being 
dragged out of the place in which they had been stored, the worms began to 
wriggle away, but the mole-catcher put them into the box he carried, and 
took away his prize. Is this habit of the mole generally known among 
naturalists? It seems to argue a reflective faculty, great as in the beaver, 
that the mole should prepare a prison in which worms can be kept alive. 
The nest of young ones is never placed out on the flat, but made in some dry 
bank where worms would perish, The mother stores the worms where they 
remain alive and wholesome food, and fetches them thence to the young as 
they require them.—‘ Field* of March 18, 1875, but unattested by a name. 
[The value of such records depends on their being thoroughly well 
authenticated. I think no such habit was noticed by Le Court in the 
experiments which he instituted into the life-history of the mole, as recorded 
by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, and it seems unlikely that such a strange propensity 
should have escaped the notice of that most diligent and accurate observer. 
The mole is one of the commonest animals in this country, but, from its 
subterranean habits, it seems to have escaped the notice of all except 
professional mole-catchers—Hdward Newman.] 
Camels reared in the United States.—“ In a farm in the State of Nevada 
(U.S.), near the river Larson, there is a troop of twenty-six camels, all of 
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