550 DRS. GEORGE AND FRANCES E. HOGGATiT ON 



outer end of each straw a small paper flag was so placed that it 

 would inevitably fall when the lower end was touched. When 

 all was ready, the experimenter blew a fearful blast through a 

 trumpet at one end of the burrow, the Mole being at the other ; 

 and as, one after another, the flags fell almost simultaneously, 

 this was supposed to be due to the passage of the frightened 

 animal towards its fortress at a rate of speed equal to a horse 

 going at full trot. Less sanguine minds may, however, only attri- 

 bute the falling of the flags to the blast of air from the trumpet, 

 or to the vibration in the air due to the same cause, and acting 

 with great force in the narrow channel. At all events, it is 

 simply ridiculous to compare the speed of a Mole in his burrow 

 to that of a horse at full trQt. 



The conformation of the fore feet, even if the observer had never 

 seen a Mole try to run away, would in itself show that they were 

 not adapted for speed ; in fact, every thing in them is adapted for 

 digging, and for nothing else. Their efficacy was shown by our 

 Mole thus : — It began in the corner of its home (the last locality 

 E-odents would attack ; for they always choose projecting localities 

 for gnawing), just where the three boards or planes met at right 

 angles to each other and furnished it with a point d''appui for 

 its peculiarly adjusted hands. In less than two hours it had 

 scraped a hole right through the inch-thick boards. The nails 

 seemed to act like a coarse rasp in making fragments of wood 

 fly off"; and so eagerly did it work that it resisted viciously when 

 we attempted to pull it away ; and when released, it rushed back 

 to the spot, and began anew, rasping with desperate eagerness. 



According to our observations, the Mole uses its fore paws 

 for holding its prey while it is being devoured ; but their merely 

 digging- adaptation renders their action during feeding rather 

 awkward. When given a worm, this was always held between 

 the backs of the hands or, rather, thumbs ; and, beginning at 

 one end, the worm was passed into the mouth by a series of 

 hitches of the fore paws, until devoured. On examining the 

 backs of those paws for nerve-endings, we could only find the 

 endings of nerves on the short tactile hairs with which the back 

 of the hand was studded. These short bristly stumps, while they 

 gave an exquisite sense of touch, were probably better adapted 

 for holding the slippery worms than a naked epidermis would 

 have been. 



The sense of hearing is supposed to be very keen in the Mole, 



