40 



TALPIDiE— TALPA 



It really seemed as if it were impossible that a mole 

 could escape this extraordinary person ; wherever he struck 

 his paddle, he found the mole's run ; wherever he placed his 

 trap, the mole was surely taken. His trap was of simple 

 construction. It consisted of a steel instrument bent on itself 

 like a pair of sugar-tongs, excepting that the branches crossed 

 each other about their mid-length, so that the elasticity of the 

 bend brought the extremities forcibly outwards and towards 

 each other. The branches were held asunder by a square 

 piece of iron with a hole through it, which the slightest touch 

 would displace ; and the animal, running along its passage, 

 threw the trigger, as it may be called, and was caught by the 

 branches springing sharply together. This appears to have 

 been a very simple, certain, and effectual instrument; but it 

 has been considerably improved upon in a trap now much 

 employed in this country, in which the hinge, connecting the 

 two branches, is placed in the middle, the spring behind, 

 and the trigger before the hinge. A sort of box-trap has 

 been recommended in some places, but it has the defect of 

 being less certain ; and at the same time it is not free from 

 the objection of cruelty, as the animals are taken alive, and 

 when several are confined in the trap together, they fight in 

 the most desperate manner, wounding and even destroying 

 each other. In the centre of England a very effective and 

 simple trap is made by sticking into the ground a hard-wood 

 stick, three or four feet long, to the free end of which a loop 

 of fine brass wire is attached ; the stick being bent down, the 

 wire is made to pass through a hole in a small piece of board, 

 into which a peg is introduced from below, to prevent the wire 

 from being withdrawn by the elasticity of the stick. The 

 board is so placed as to form a small portion of the roof of 

 the run, and is firmly kept in position by sticks laid horizontally 

 across it, which are held down at their ends by hooked pegs. 

 The loop of wire passing through the board is opened below, 

 so as to fit the inside of the run ; and the peg, which keeps it 

 from being drawn up by the spring-stick, projects downwards 

 into the middle of the run. The mole, passing along, pushes 

 out the peg, whilst its own body is within the wire loop, 

 which is instantly drawn up, and the creature is speedily 



