Quadrupeds. 2279 



an inch thick, which adhere to the prickles in so firm a manner that the animals seem 

 to have rolled themselves amongst them : over this is another loose, warm covering of 

 leaves. When this outer covering is removed the animal looks exactly like a lump of 

 dried foliage. I have only once known a hedgehog killed in winter, out of his hyber- 

 naculum : the season was remarkably mild, and he had either never laid himself up 

 at all or was tempted out by the softness of the atmosphere (See Zool. 714). 



Mole (Talpa europcea). My journal has the following note. " February 15, 1845. 

 The mole does not (as the great Linneus asserts) lie dormant during the winter, neither 

 in frosts does he cease to undermine the ground ; for I have observed, to my surprise, 

 that he can work in the severest weather, and push the soil through the frozen surface. 

 This proceeding I have noticed some dozens of times this winter, even when the wea- 

 ther has been so severe as to freeze over the Trent ; but I find that when the surface 

 of the earth is very hard, the mole, in order to save himself labour, sometimes brings 

 the loose soil which he is working to the nearest hillock, and pushes it through an old 

 hole to the surface, rather than trouble himself to make a new one through the turf, 

 as he would do if the ground was soft. The mole also works in snows." Moles do 

 not always abound in pastures where earth-worms are most plentiful, and their food 

 seems restricted to the smaller kinds. We have several fields here where large worm- 

 casts exist in such numbers as almost to destroy the herbage, yet no mole ever enters 

 them, although they work readily in the surrounding fields. These animals mine 

 with equal ease in either dry or swampy soils. The miry earth does not, as might be 

 supposed, retard the movements of the animal by clogging his skin, for he comes out 

 of such spots almost as sleek as from the drier grounds. They seem rather to avoid 

 our stiffest loams and clays. Mole-catchers say that the male is much more cunning 

 and difficult to take than the female. The mounds under which their nest is placed 

 are always large, and I have seen one eighteen inches high and nine feet in circum- 

 ference. Moles sometimes make their nests as early as February, but use them as 

 dormitories until towards May, when the young are deposited. They must occasion- 

 ally ascend above ground to procure blades of grasses for their nest, and to see them 

 engaged in this operation must be a curious spectacle. They probably collect them 

 in their mouths, in the same manner as a sow in a farm-yard does the litter for her 

 bed. They use their runs when filled with water, if necessary. I have known them 

 manifest peculiar obstinacy in not quitting a spot where the nest was situate, and when 

 it was destroyed in rebuilding it, even to the fourth time. As the word ' mole ' signifies 

 a * spot or excrescence,' probably the animal received its name from its habit of throw- 

 ing up its small round hillocks, which look like spots or disfiguring marks upon the 

 earth's surface. When above ground moles have an awkward gait, but make progress 

 at considerable speed. When handled they make a shrill distressing noise. In water 

 they swim well and rapidly ; but if allowed to remain in that element for a very short 

 period, life becomes extinct. They have, when above ground, a curious and particu- 

 lar habit of scratching themselves with their hind legs, in order to get rid of a small 

 parasite, which proves very irksome to them. I have paid considerable attention 

 to the mole, and have ever admired his remarkable shape and his singular instinct, 

 and been interested in his extraordinary subterranean mode of life. I have ever found 

 him an animal of deep interest, but I am very far from attributing to him those mi- 

 raculous traits of character which are recorded by Geoffrey St. Hilaire and Mr. Jesse. 

 Is the mole injurious or beneficial in agriculture ? This is a difficult question. I 

 have examined many moles, but never found anything in them but the remains of 



