MOLE. 127 



advantage of these times to steal softly upon them, and 

 throw them out of the ground with their paddle. But 

 great quickness is necessary in doing this, for the Mole 

 will bury itself again so rapidly as often to escape, even 

 when fairly thrown on to the surface. We have on more 

 than one occasion seen a Mole making so shallow a run, 

 that the fine soil has fallen away on each side, leaving 

 the creature's back exposed to view. It is said that 

 the gravid female, to whom the usual excavations in the 

 subterranean alleys would be too laborious, limits herself 

 principally to this lighter toil. 



This description of the different methods in which the 

 animal seeks its food, leads to the consideration of the 

 nature of the food itself. It has been asserted, even by 

 Le Court, as well as by many other writers, that it con- 

 sists not only of earth-worms, insects, and other animal 

 matters, but, in a considerable degree, of many vegetable 

 substances, — particularly of the roots of the artichoke, 

 of turnips, potatoes, carrots, and the young tender 

 fibres of the roots of trees. The truth, however, appears 

 to be, that it is exclusively, or nearly so, an animal 

 feeder. The experiments of M. Flourens, as recorded 

 by Geoffrey St. Hilaire, are conclusive on this point; 

 and their results are too interesting to be omitted here. 

 It must be premised that the appetites of the Mole, of 

 whatever kind, are extreme in their degree. The Mole, 

 says the latter distinguished naturalist, does not exhibit 

 the appetite of hunger as we find it in other animals ; 

 it amounts in it to a degree of frenzy. The animal, 

 when under its influence, is violently agitated : it throws 

 itself on its prey as if maddened with rage ; its gluttony 

 disorders all its faculties, and nothing seems to stand in 

 the way of its intense voracity. This picture certainly 

 exhibits none of the characters of a vegetable, or even 



