WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



done so, but I cannot think the mole is really 

 a thirsty creature. 



To go back to the ' palace,' it is a curious fact 

 that this elaborate living place is made and 

 occupied by the male alone ! The female is 

 not nearly so particular about her quarters. 

 A bed under a small hillock will do for her, 

 but her mate must have his great mound, his 

 comfortable chamber, and his tunnels driven 

 around the heap. Here he lives in state all 

 winter, but with the warmer weather even he 

 becomes less particular, sleeping anywhere he 

 can make a nice nest, and the great fortress 

 is deserted for the time being, though often 

 returned to the following autumn. Some of 

 these mounds are occupied year after year, new 

 bedding being put on the top of the old, or even 

 a new sleeping chamber dug out above the first. 

 I have opened a mound and found the two nests, 

 the old and the new, thus placed one above the 

 other, and a case has been known of a mole 

 palace that had no less than seven nests in it ! ^ 



Not only are the living places of the males and 

 females different, but so are their highroads. 

 The main way of the old gentleman mole will 



' See photographs by Mr. Douglas English in Wild Life, vol. i. 

 p. 346. 



160 



