Observations on Staten Island Moles 1 



By William T. Davis 



A star-nosed mole, Condylura cristata L., was found on Oc- 

 tober 20, 1908, near Rossville on the farm of Mr. Isaac Wort, 

 who has kindly given me the specimen. When discovered it was 

 digging near a spring in the low, wet ground. This species was 

 included in the " Preliminary List of the Mammals of Staten 

 Island" (Proc. Nat. Sci. Assn. S. I., Extra No. 3, Aug., 1885) 

 on the authority of one specimen seen on the ice at Silver Lake 

 by Mr. Schultze. Mr. James Chapin has found several skulls 

 of this mole in the pellets of the barred owl. They may be told 

 from the skulls of the common mole by having 44 teeth instead 

 of 36, and in being more elongate. 



Some years ago, on the 10th of October at 1 1.15 a.m., I 

 observed a common mole, Scalops aquaticus L., under the loose 

 sand at Richmond Valley. After watching it for a time, I 

 jumped suddenly and captured it. It was eating a millipede at 

 the time, which it did not at first relinquish. I placed it on the 

 surface of the ground and it remained quiet for so long that I 

 imagined it had been injured. After a while, however, it com- 

 menced to dig, and it required a little over a minute to get below 

 the surface, though the ground was loose and sandy. It very 

 shortly came to the surface again and moved to a new spot. 

 Here in about the same length of time it was out of sight, and 

 appeared to travel in a corkscrew fashion straight down into the 

 loose soil. After it had gone a little way, I dug carefully after, 

 and followed it about a foot below the surface ; it was digging 

 quite fast after the first few inches had been made, or until it got 

 below the matted roots near the surface. This mole did not 

 appear to be fully grown. 



1 Presented November 21, 1908. 



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