THE COMMON MOLE, MOLDWARP OR WANT 37 



The young, which are hairless at birth, grow so rapidly as to 

 double their length within the first ten days of their life. 

 At about the ninth day the advent of the fur is heralded by a 

 change of hue on the back from pink to dull lead colour. On 

 about the fourteenth day the fur begins to make its appearance, 

 and by the twenty-second it is of normal length and colour. The 

 ears open on about the seventeenth day and the eyes on about 

 the twenty-second day, soon after which the young are nearly 

 as big as their parents. They probably leave the nest in or 

 after the fourth week. Mr Adams's interesting observations on 

 this point, which are printed above in tabular form on p. 12, 

 were interrupted by the fact that the nests in which he measured 

 young moles were all eventually found empty at various dates 

 before the conclusion of his investigations. The circumstances 

 suggested removal of the young by their mothers. 



The ancients in general appear to have had but vague 

 notions respecting the habits and structure of animals ; from this 

 charge Aristotle is in an astonishing degree exempt. It has, 

 however, been adduced as an instance of erroneous and super- 

 ficial observation, that he held the Mole to be absolutely blind. 

 In this, however, as has appeared above, he certainly wrote 

 quite correctly of the species found in southern Europe ; but 

 Shakespeare^ was on more treacherous ground when he laid 

 such stress on this aspect of the animal in describing " The blind 

 Mole" which "casts copp'd hills towards heaven," Numberless 

 minor superstitions are current concerning the animal : it 

 cannot live where Irish earth has been spread ; in Stafford- 

 shire it possesses only one drop of blood ;^ in Surrey it 

 has but one ear ; in Lincolnshire it leaves the ground 

 only once a year to take a little fresh air by daylight ; ^ in 

 Scotland its burrowing near a house betokens the speedy 

 departure, or even death, of the inhabitants.* In many places 

 people believe that moles wandering above the earth are 

 " moonstruck " ; * while it is on record that a mole's heart 

 swallowed warm and palpitating confers skill in divination, and 

 that a sprinkling of the blood makes a crazy person sane.* It 



> Pericles, i., I. ^ Adams. ^ Fide C. B. Moffat {in lit). 



* A. R. Forbes, Gaelic Names of Beasts, etc., 1905, 188. 



° J. G. Millais. " Cuming, Arcadian Calendar, 182. 



