CTJTANEOTJS TSTERTE-TERMINATIOlSrs TK MAMMALS 549 



as would a rat, mouse, or other animal ; but, instead, it always 

 walked straight backwards, as easily apparently as it progressed 

 forwards, though there was ample free space for it to turn 

 round. Even when frightened, or on other occasions, progress 

 backwards was manifest ; hence we conclude this to be a habit 

 acquired through living in long narrow subterranean burrows or 

 tunnels, and being thus cramped for turning. Doubtless this habit 

 has become so thoroughly ingrained into the animal and race, that 

 even in localities with abundance of space to turn in, it is still 

 clung to. "When moving backwards, we constantly observed that 

 it kept its little short tail close to the floor of its cage, moving 

 it about from side to side as if feeling the way for the body to 

 follow; and it was this peculiar action which led us to look for 

 histological evidence of the tail being a tactile organ. 



Having placed the creature in a large earthernware footbath 

 one third full of earth, it continually burrowed ; and, as it dived 

 down, its short tail kept wagging from side to side in the upright 

 position, as if it were a guide directing the line of burrow. In- 

 deed, placed between the tactile apparatus on the nose and on 

 the tail, the body of the little sapper seems to be to him both 

 level and compass to guide him in the laying-out of his subter- 

 ranean passages. 



The following account of habits is frequently recited by authors : 

 — " Occasionally a Mole will form two or more high roads leading 

 to liis fortress ; and sometimes several Moles share the same high- 

 way, perhaps in localities where worms and grubs are peculiarly 

 fat and abundant. But in the latter case, as there is not room in 

 the little tunnel for one Mole to pass another, if two of tliem 

 meet by accident, one of them must give way, or retire into a side 

 alley ; otherwise a violent combat ensues, when the weaker is 

 ruthlessly killed and devoured." JSTowwhat human eye ever saw 

 two Moles, inmates of the same burrow, meet underground, or 

 watched the violent combat and cannibal feast so graphically 

 described ? The fact is, that it is as easy for the weaker Mole ■ 

 to walk backward as for his opponent to walk forward, and thus 

 to avoid all necessity for a combat. 



The oft-quoted statement (Bell's ' British Quadrupeds,' and 

 elsewhere) of the great speed of the Mole seems to rest upon one 

 of M. Henri Le Court's hyperiugenious experiments. A number 

 of pieces of straw were lightly let down into the burrow at diffe- 

 rent points, so as to occupy the centre of its lumen. On the 



