THE COMMON MOLE, MOLDWARP OR WANT 17 



the conflicting reports are very easily intelligible if it is supposed 

 that this variability extends to other districts. 



A curious, but true, old story, that the fur around the eyes 

 is sometimes radiated, has been mentioned by many authors, and 

 dates at least from the latter half of the fifteenth century, when 

 Bartholomaeus Anglicus ^ wrote : " And some men trow that the 

 skin of the mole breaketh for anguish and sorrow when he 

 beginneth to die, and beginneth then to open the eyes in dying 

 that were closed living." This has been observed by Mr 

 Adams during the spasms of a dying mole, as well as fre- 

 quently by Dr Laver.^ Mr F. A. Bruton ^ has noticed that a 

 distinct conical cavity may be formed by radiation of the fur, at 

 the bottom of which the black circular eye was clearly seen by 

 him with no protection whatever. 



Everyone has seen on the surface of the ground the evidences 

 of the Mole's burrowing for its food ; they are indeed plain 

 almost everywhere in Great Britain, from the sand-dunes and 

 salt-marshes of the sea-shore to the upland pastures and the 

 higher slopes of the mountains. The plan upon which it works 

 has, however, formed the subject of some discussion ; by 

 most writers the animal has been endowed with a knowledge 

 of architectural symmetry in the scheme of its tunnels, charac- 

 teristic rather of an engineer than of a wild animal. The usual 

 idea of the domain, district, or encampment, as it is variously 

 called, is somewhat as shown in Fig. i, each animal being 

 supposed to confine itself to the actual limits or immediate 

 neighbourhood of its own district. But this cannot really be 

 the case, since a trap placed in a run may catch many more 

 than one. Possibly the truth is that the old males, as in the 

 case of so many other mammals, are more or less solitary, the 

 females and young comparatively sociable. 



There is a central habitation or fortress, from which ex- 

 tends a main tunnel or high-road, by which it is supposed that 

 the animal reaches the extremities of its domain, and from which 

 open out numerous minor galleries or excavations. These are 

 the hunting-grounds of the males, and are being continually 

 extended in their search for food. This description, strange to 



• De Proprietatibus Rerum, lib. 18, cap. 100, fol. 1471, English version, 1535. 

 2 In lit. ^ Op. cit. supra, p. 9. 



