128 The Naturalist in Siluria. 



not touch them, its sole food, so far as I Lave been able 

 to discover, being the ordinary ground or earth-worm 

 {Lumbricus terrestris). 



THE MOLE A " CONFERRING BENEFACTOR " ! 



I lately noticed an article on the Mole, casting ridicule 

 on all who destroy this little quadruped, which the writer 

 believes to be a heaven-born blessing, while the farmer re- 

 gards it as a curse, or, at all events, a very troublesome pest. 

 In this the tiller of the soil is right, for a pest Talpa is, 

 greater than rat, and ten times greater than rook. The 

 writer in question says : "The mole more than makes up for 

 any damage it does by destroying wire-worms and other 

 grubs tbat prey upon the wheat crops." This is no new 

 theory, and at' first thought may appear plausible enough. 

 It is not substantiated, however, by accurate observation, 

 for the mole does not eat wire-worms and other noxious in- 

 sect larvae, the innocent earth'-^jorm {Lumbricus terrestris) 

 being its natural and regular food. The stomachs of 

 many which I have examined contained only the latter, 

 cut into sections for the convenience of swallowing ; and 

 that this is the mole's preferred diet I can offer very 

 direct proof. One year early in June I had the luck to 

 catch one alive — no common occurrence — and having 

 placed it in a large empty flower-pot, from which an aloe 

 had been just removed, I proceeded to experiment on its 

 food partialities. Wire-worms it nosed and passed by, as 

 though its palate disdained them; but as soon as an 



