The Moles Out and About. 135 



THE MOLE IN FULL "MOOT" AFTER EARTH- 

 WORMS. 



The main galleries, used in passing from place to place, 

 are permanent, wtile the ordinary worm-runs are from 

 time to time abandoned when the annelidce have been 

 all eaten out of them. Then the mole betakes itself to 

 a fresh spot; and when it first breaks ground in this, a 

 curious spectacle may be witnessed, should there be day- 

 light to show it — that is, the frightened worms crawling 

 out upon the surface and wriggling about, just as if the 

 ground had been sluiced with salt water ! They will be 

 seen rising in front and to each side of the underground 

 tunnel as it progresses, staying hidden among the grass 

 till the destroyer has passed on. 



There is no animal, however low in the scale of intelli- 

 gence, but knows its natural enemy ; and this behaviour 

 of earth-worms is another proof, if any were needed, that 

 they are the special prey and food of the mole. 



THE MOLES OUT AND ABOUT. 



I have elsewhere spoken of the mole no longer throw- 

 ing up its "tumps," or hills j giving reason therefor — that 

 the earth-worms are now every night above ground, so 

 that talpa has no need to burrow after them beneath it. 

 On April 14th, strolling about my fields, I noticed here 

 and there a round hole, the orifice of a tunnel, which, on 

 being probed with my cane, was found to descend some 



