Romancing about the Mole. 127 



from it are three or four underground galleries^ neither 

 at equal distances apart, nor always alike in number ; 

 evidently made without any aim or design, save that of 

 convenient passage out to different parts of the mole's 

 " mooting " grounds, and return from them. 



And why should this animal contrive a stronghold of 

 security, since it has such in all its " runs," both the main 

 permanent ones and those of a temporary kind made in 

 the pursuit of worms ? Only one of its enemies, the 

 weasel, can make way along either; and this slender 

 vermiform creature could just as easily enter and assail it 

 within " the fortress." In fine, I hesitate not to say, that 

 this self-same fortress, though described as being under- 

 ground, were better characterized by calling it a " castle 

 in the air." I may be wrong, however, and, if so, will 

 be glad to be set right by some one who has actually 

 entered the Mole's fortress. 



Another erroneous belief about the Mole, and one of 

 more important bearing, though with less of the ludicrous 

 in it, is that this animal benefits the farmer in various ways, 

 but chiefly by destroying wire-worms, which it is said 

 to feed upon. In The Field newspaper, some long time 

 ago, there appeared a communicated article alleging this 

 to be a fact, and backing the allegement with a string 

 of details, which, as I could see, were drawn from imagi- 

 nation, just as Le Court's castle. Yet neither The Field's 

 natural history editor, nor any of its numerous corres- 

 pondents, has, so far as I know, contradicted the erroneous 

 statement, though it is calculated to do harm to the 

 agriculturist, by making him tender as to Talpa and chary 

 of destroying it. I can contradict it, however, proving 

 the Mole a real pest, showing, by many experiments 

 actually made, that it does not eat wire-worm^, and will 



