THE COMMON MOLE, MOLDWARP OR WANT 31 



such structure could make an habitual practice of pursuing 

 vertebrate animals. 



Individuals must vary considerably in their habits and 

 practices, since the Rev. A. Woodruffe- Peacock^ informed 

 Mr Adams that he had known moles to seize some young 

 pheasants and a young blackbird by the feet in the 

 shallow runs, and his brother found a hooded crow picked 

 clean, the tracks on frozen snow clearly identifying the diner. 

 Whether, as suggested by Mr C. Witchell,' it is an enemy to 

 snakes or vipers in their winter sleep is, however, quite 

 uncertain. Alston^ offered a small toad to a captive mole, 

 but it was rejected after examination ; but, as a general rule, 

 toads, as regards edibility, occupy a class entirely by them- 

 selves. To all other creatures, not excepting the weaker of 

 its own species, the Mole exhibits a savage and unreasoning 

 ferocity, and if two be placed together in a box without a 

 plentiful supply of food, the weaker will soon fall a prey to 

 the stronger. No bulldog keeps a firmer hold of the object 

 of its attack than the Mole. 



The Mole has been accused of feloniously burrowing under 

 the nests of pheasants and partridges, "not by accidentally 

 coming across them in its working, but working up to them to 

 get at them."* It is probable, however, that the letting down 

 of the eggs is in reality accidental, and that the sole attraction 

 in such cases is the moist soil and plentiful supply of insects. 



This is the view of Mr Owen Jones, who has had great 

 experience as a gamekeeper, and who writes me that, although 

 he has had any number of nests upset and the eggs let down 

 into the tunnelling, he has never seen any evidence to show that 

 moles directly meddle with them. He once took a clutch of 

 uninjured pheasant's eggs ^ from a run underlying the nest ; 



1 A similar instance is narrated in the Field of i6th February 1901, 226, by 

 C. A. Hamond. 



2 Zoologist, 1883, 293-4. 3 Journ. cit., 1865, 9707. 



« C. E. Wright, in Adams ; see also W. S. Medlicott, Field, 29th April 1905, 726 ; 

 and for similar treatment of a partridge's nest, F. Dent, /ourn. cit., 17th August 1901, 

 312. Dogs are said not to be able to scent sitting birds, but the odour of the nest 

 may be much more perceptible from beneath than from above, and eggs appear to 

 suddenly acquire a strong odour just before the end of incubation (see below, under 

 Hedgehog, pp. 63 and 67). 



^ Ten Years of Gamekeeping. 



