84 COMMON AMERICAN SHREW MOLE. 



DIMENSIONS. 

 Adult male. inches. Lines. 



From nose to root of tail, ..... 58 



Tail, 8 



Breadth of palm, 5 



A specimen from Carolina. 



From nose to root of tail, . - - - . 4 7 



Tail, 9 



Breadth of palm, 06 



HABITS. 



Whilst almost every farmer or gardener throughout the Northern and 

 Eastern vStates, is well acquainted with this curious animal, as far as the 

 mere observation of its meandering course through his fields and mea- 

 dows, his beds of green peas or other vegetables, is concerned, but few 

 have arrived at proper conclusions in regard to the habits of the Shrew 

 Mole ; and it is generally caught and killed whenever practicable ; the 

 common idea being, that the Mole feeds on the roots of tender plants, grasses, 

 &c. ; while the fact that the animal devours great quantities of earth- 

 worms, slugs, and grubs, all hurtful to the fruit trees, to the grasses, and 

 the peas and other vegetables, seems to be unknown, or overlooked. 



In justice to the farmer and gardener, however, we must say, that the 

 course taken occasionally, by this species, directly along a row of tender 

 plants, throwing them oiit of the earth, as it does, or zig-zag across a valua- 

 ble bed or beautiful lavwi, is rather provoking, and we have ourselves caus- 

 ed traps to be set for moles, being greatly annoyed by their digging long gal- 

 leries under the grass, on our sloping banks, which during a heavy shower, 

 soon filled with water, and presently increased to large gutters, or deep 

 holes, requiring repairs forthwith. At such times also, a Mole-track 

 through loose soil where there is any descent, will be found by the garden- 

 er, perchance, to have become a miniature ravine, some twenty or thirty 

 yards in length, and a few (anticipated) bushels of carrots are destroyed. 

 In neglected or sandjf soils, one of these gutters becomes deep and wide in 

 a short time, and we may perhaps not err in hazarding the opinion that 

 some of the unsightly ravines which run almost through large estates, oc- 

 casionally might be traced to no higher origin than the wandering of an 

 unlucky mole ! 



We kept one of this species alive, for some days ; feeding it altoge- 

 ther upon earth-worms, but we soon found it difficult to procure a suffi- 



