INSECT-EATERS 7 1 



2. The intestine is short, like that of all carnivores. (Compare the ox 

 in this respect.) 



3. Mode of obtaining Food. — As in the case of a blind man, the 

 total absence of sight in the mole is compensated by the exaggerated 

 development of two other senses, viz., the smell and the touch. The 

 snout is richly supplied with nerves, and, according to naturalists, forms 

 an incomparably delicate organ of touch. The hearing also is excellent. 



4. Habits and Peculiarities. — As a result of its burrowing mode of life, 

 which necessitates a great expenditure of force, the mole is a very 

 voracious animal. (See bat.) It pursues, in fact, a career of incessant 

 slaughter. The quantity of food consumed daily is about equal to the 

 weight of its own body. If confined to a diet of cockchafer larvse, it will 

 require a daily supply actually amounting to three or four times its own 

 body weight. This is due to the fact that the intestines of these noxious 

 larvse contain a large quantity of vegetable food materials as well as of 

 earth swallowed with the food. These useless constituents the mole 

 carefully squeezes out before it devours the animal. In consequence 

 of its own large requirements in the way of food, this insatiable animal 

 tolerates no other member of its own species within its domain ; indeed, 

 the mole leads the life of a surly unsocial hermit, and is at all times 

 prepared to defend its own with its last breath. 



5. Its small size is in accordance with the nature of its food. A 

 large animal, such as a horse or elephant, would not be able to satisfy 

 its needs on a diet of insects or earthworms. 



6. Manner of passing the Winter. — Whilst other insect-eating species 

 on the advent of winter either migrate to warmer countries (e.g., birds) 

 or pass into a condition of death-like sleep (e.g., bats), the mole continues 

 its pursuit of larvse and worms in the unfrozen depths of the soil. It is 

 not compelled to enter into the hibernating stage, and appears, in fact, 

 during this season to have special facilities for obtaining its food, for 

 after long spells of frosty weather large quantities of earthworms 

 (amounting sometimes to 5 or 6 pounds weight) have been found 

 immured in the walls of the passages adjoining its dwelling. If it killed 

 these animals they would soon putrefy, and thus become uneatable ; it 

 therefore very cleverly prevents them from further boring their way 

 through the soil by wounding their head-segments or biting off a few 

 rings from the front end of the body. 



C. Plan and Structure of Dwelling. 



1. The dwelling of our little miner is found under a heap of earth or 

 hillock much larger than the ordinary molehills. It consists of a 

 rounded cavity or central chamber, which is comfortably padded with 



