THE COMMON MOLE, MOLDWARP OR WANT 7 



Epinal Glossary, which has been attributed to about 700 a.d. This 

 is in the Mercian, i.e., Anglian, dialect, but the Saxon form must 

 have been identical with the Anglian, as is known from the history of 

 similarly formed words. 



Sex names : — Boar and sow. 



Local names {non-Qei.'iS.c) -.—Moldwarp or mouldwarp ; want or 

 wunt; with innumerable corruptions, of which formidable lists are 

 given in Wright ; these are explained under Terminology. 



(Celtic):— Irish— r<a:or/?!i« = "blind one." Scottish G2.€C\c—famh- 

 thalmhainn {ath-thalmhain) ; dallag = " blind one " ; dubh-threobhaiche 

 = " black ploughman"; iiir-threobhaiche=''va.QvXdi--p\o\x^^x" Manx 

 —kyaghan = " blind one " ; roddan-ooirey = " earth-rat " ; lugh-ghoal 

 = " blind mouse." Welsh— ,^wa^i!^; twrch daear = " earth hog " ; twrch 

 gorddodyn = " burrowing hog " ; older form, yllyr. Cornish— older, 

 god; later form, godk, gUdA. 



Mole-hills are known as want-heaves or tumps in various parts of 

 England, both heave and tump being terms having, according to Wright, 

 the general meaning of " heap." 



Distribution : — The Common Mole, possibly including forms hitherto 

 undistinguished from it, ranges through boreal and transitional Europe 

 and Asia, from sea-level to about 6000 feet in the Alps (Blasius) ; and from 

 Scotland, to in Sweden about 59° N. lat. (but not in Norway), the middle 

 Dvina district in north Russia, and corresponding latitudes of Siberia 

 to central France ; it there gives way to T. caca, as well as in Dalmatia, 

 Greece, and in most countries south of the Alps. In Spain it is replaced 

 by 71 occidentalis, and in the neighbourhood of Rome by T. romana. 

 Eastwards the limits of its distribution are imperfectly known, but 

 it occurs from Great Britain to probably the Pacific coast of Siberia. 

 In western China, Tibet, the south-western Himalayas, and the Altais 

 it meets other species, already mentioned on p. 5. 



In Great Britain the Mole is probably abundant in every county of 

 England, Wales, and Scotland. 



It is numerous even in Sutherland and Caithness (Harvie-Brown 

 and Buckley), in the former of which Selby reported it as common in 

 1834 [Edinburgh New Phil. Journ., xx., 159, 1836). The evidence of 

 Scottish naturalists is, however, in favour of a general recent increase 

 in its numbers with a corresponding extension of its range, and there 

 are stated to be areas, such as Southend, Kintyre (Boyd Watt), which 

 it has not yet reached. 



Wherever the soil permits or earth-worms are found, it ascends 

 to the summits of the highest hills, as in Yorkshire (Roberts, 

 Zoologist, 1872, 3 1 82-3 1 83). It has been observed at altitudes 

 of 1700 feet, or practically the highest point, on the Pentlands, and 

 even higher on the Ochils (W. Evans), while in the Solway and 



