170 The Mole Carnivorous. 
dition of potatoe boiled with meat; the animal was then full and vig- 
orous. ‘The next morning I found him dead—the cheese and pota- 
toe as I had left them, none of which had been eaten. ‘The belly 
and sides of the mole were much contracted and depressed. 
During the whole time of his confinement, he had been well sup- 
plied with water and ice. The whole of the vegetables put into the 
box remained unbitten. 
The result of this experiment has removed from my mind all 
doubts respecting the character and habits of this singular animal— 
and whether the mole of our country, is or is not of the same spe- 
cies with those mentioned by M. Flourens, it is clearly not herbivo- 
rous, and may be truly ranked among carnivorous animals. 
But a question of perhaps more difficult solution respecting the 
mole’s digestive organs, and of its regimen in relation to its hiberna- 
tion in our latitude, remains as a subject of enquiry. From what may 
be considered as already ascertained relative to their habits and regi- 
men, I think it cannot be supposed they lay up in store their supply 
of provisions for the winter—nor can they, during the time the ground 
remains frozen, travel abroad in search of food, except it be below 
frost, and even there, no food proper for them could be found. 
Do they belong to that class of animals which hibernate in a tor- 
pid state, and to which no food of any kind is necessary during the 
continuance of their torpidity? If so, where do they take up their 
winter lodgings? It is true they are sometimes found in an active 
state in cellars during the winter; but it can hardly be supposed they 
all find such accommodations, nor is it easy to conceive how, even 
in those situations, they should be able to find food of the proper kind 
to satiate their gluttony. 
The mole in his subterranean march, possesses no physical power 
for migrating to the south, nor is it probable that the functions of his 
tect organs cease their action, as in those animals which become 
torpid in thei hibernation. 
These hints are barely suggested, indulging a hope, should you 
give them publicity, that they may elicit from some able naturalist, a 
publication which shall settle the question. . 
There seems to be a general rule established in nature, (it may, 
hke other general rules, have exceptions,) that all those animals, 
whose proper food can be acquired by them in the higher latitudes 
during the winter, do not migrate—such as eagles, hawks, owls, 
crows, and other carnivorous birds; also partridges, quails, various 
kinds of snow-birds, and many others which feed on buds of trees, 
