128 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. V 
the prolonged flexible snout and delicate rows of 
needle-pointed teeth, made to seize, hold, and 
crush the hard, slippery bodies of insects, — inhabit 
by thousands every part of the country, and 'are 
active at all seasons of the year; yet only now and 
then is one seen, and that one is usually dead. 
Mainly nocturnal in their work, and sneaking from 
point to point under: leaves and through runways 
concealed by the arching grasses, they elude our 
notice while existing in multitudes about our feet. 
Of the moles we seem to know somewhat more, 
for the heaved-up lines of turf that mark their sub- 
terranean lines of research for bugs and worms, 
and the hillocks of loose earth, showing where, at 
intervals, they have cast out the excavated soil, 
are familiar to all dwellers outside of large cities. 
Nevertheless, so infrequently is the miner himself 
met with, that many a person who has grumbled 
all his life at the depredations on his lawn, would 
not recognize the culprit when brought before 
him, and certainly could not tell whether it were 
the common garden-mole, or the star-nosed one, 
or Brewer’s hairy-tailed mole.1 These animals, it 
1 See Plate of Common Moles, opposite: 1. The eastern Garden- 
Mole (Scalops aguaticus); a, head, side view; 4, palm of fore-foot; 
¢, semi-naked tail. 2. The Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata) ; 
a, head, under side; 4, palm; ¢, tail; a, “star” of the muzzle, 
front view. 3. The California Shrew-mole (Uvrotrichus gibbsi); 
a, head, under side; 4, head, side view (see also Plate of Shrews; 
c, palm. 4. The Hiairy-tailed, or Brewer’s Mole (Scapanus 
breweri); a, muzzle, side view; 4, tail; ¢, palm. 
