l02 VERTEBRATES. 



from tlie shore to an island, and when the fields are inundated hy 

 floods, it can save itself by swimming. 



The construction of the mole's habitation is very singular 

 and interesting. Each mole has its own habitation and hunting 

 ground, and will not permit strangers to trespass upon its preserves, 

 which it guards, not by " man-traps and spring-guns," but by its 

 own claws and teeth. In order to construct a fortress, the mole 

 selects a secure place, as the foot of a tree, or the side of a high 

 bank. It then throws up a heap of earth, which it presses fiimly 

 together, as within this mound its fortress has to be made. It 

 commences by running a circular gallery near the summit of the 

 mound, and another larger one near the bottom. These two gal- 

 leries it connects by five descending passages. In the very centre 

 of the mound, and at the level of the ground, it then digs a cir- 

 cular hole, which it connects with the upper gallery by three as- 

 cending passages. Lastly, it makes a number of passages from 

 the lower gallery, and connects the circular chamber with the 

 largest of them, or high road, by a passage that first bends down- 

 wards, and then rises into the high road a little outside the large 

 gallery. In the circular chamber the mole sleeps, and can escape 

 into the high road either by the upper gallery or by the road from 

 the bottom of its dormitory. 



Moles vary in color, the usual tint being a very deep brown, 

 . almost black, but they have been seen of an orange color, and a 

 white variety is not uncommon. Those who have watched its 

 habits state that it alternately works and rests at intervals of three 

 hours. There are several moles known, — the Shrew Mole, the 

 Changeable Mole, the Cape Mole, and the Star-nosed Mole, are the 

 most 'conspicuous. 



GNAWERS. 



The Black Kat. — Under the general name of Eat, several 

 species of small animals have been comprised. The first of these, 

 known commonly by the name of the Black Rat, is indigenous in 

 England, carnivorous, and even, if the expression is allowable, 

 omnivorous. Hard substances, however, it prefers to soft ones: it 



