SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 



485 



follow their prey to lower levels. A hard 

 shower, however, always brings an outburst of 

 activity as they reoccupy the upper soil and 

 throw up a multitude of new mounds. They 

 have the habit of regularly coming to the sur- 

 face to hunt food during the night. This is 

 no doubt coincident with the swarming up to 

 the surface of earthworms on which the moles 

 feed. At such times many are captured by 

 owls, cats, and other beasts of prey. 



The runways of moles close along the sur- 

 face, shown by well-marked ridges, are for 

 hunting purposes, and the lower tunnels, from 

 which the earth in the mounds is brought, are 

 for traveling and lead to the nest chamber. 

 The deep tunnels of the Oregon mole sometimes 

 extend considerable distances along fences, or 

 other surface cover, which afford more or less 

 protection. Such tunnels are a kind of high- 

 way often used by several moles and also by 

 shrews and field mice. The system of tunnels 

 of the moles over a considerable area often in- 

 tersect and are used more or less in common. 

 As a result more than twenty moles have been 

 trapped at a single point in one of these under- 

 ground roads. 



They make an intricate system of many- 

 branched tunnels, the courses of which are 

 usually marked by series of mounds varying 

 from four to ten inches high and five to twenty 

 inches wide* and often scattered over meadows 

 or other fields from two to six feet apart. 

 Owing to the persistence with which the moles 

 raise their mounds everywhere in the occupied 

 parts of their territory, they have become a 

 serious and costly pest. In meadows the knives 

 of mowing machines are dulled by them, and 

 in towns lawns are disfigured by their unde- 

 sirable activities. As a consequence they have 

 now fallen under the ban and are classed with 

 other mammals which have shown their lack 

 of ability to fit in satisfactorily with the changed 

 conditions brought to their ancient territory by 

 civilized man. Under natural conditions their 

 activities were undoubtedly entirely beneficial. 



They appear to have but a single litter of 

 young, numbering from one to four, each year. 

 These are born in March and grow so rapidly 

 that by the last of May they are working in 

 the tunnels and are scarcely distinguishable 

 from the adults. 



The recent discovery that the Oregon mole- 

 skin is valuable for its fur will give such an 

 incentive to trapping that there is little doubt 

 the boys of the State within a few years will 

 reduce the numbers of the animal and thus 

 control its injury to agriculture. The market 

 for the skins appears practically unlimited, 

 judging by trade reports, one dealer in Brook- 

 lyn stating that he dressed 4,000,000 imported 

 European moleskins in 1916. 



THE STAR-NOSED MOLE (Condylura 

 cristata) 



{For illustration, see page 461) 



The star-nosed mole, known in parts of 

 Maine as the "gopher," is peculiar among the 

 moles in having a fringe around the end of its 



nose formed by twenty-two short fleshy ten- 

 tacles. A less-marked character is in the pro- 

 portionately long tail, which becomes greatly 

 enlarged in fall and remains in this condition 

 during the winter months. Otherwise the ex- 

 ternal appearance of this species is much like 

 that of the common moles of America and the 

 Old World. 



The star-nosed mole is found from southern 

 Labrador, the southern end of Hudson Bay, 

 and southeastern Manitoba south along the 

 Atlantic coast to Georgia and in the interior 

 down the Alleghenies to North Carolina and 

 to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Min- 

 nesota. Throughout this area it ranges irreg- 

 ularly and much yet remains to be learned 

 about the details of its distribution and habits. 



Ordinarily solitary, these moles at times are 

 so numerous in limited areas that they appear 

 to form colonies. Such gatherings probably 

 mean an unusually rich feeding ground, which 

 makes it unnecessary for the young to disperse 

 to outlying locations, as is the habit of moles 

 and most other mammals. 



The star-nosed mole has a strong preference 

 for damp and even marshy or swampy loca- 

 tions. It frequents low-lying meadows, the 

 borders of streams, and grassy swamps, where 

 its underground burrows alternate with open 

 surface runways among grass roots and other 

 matted vegetation. It spends far more time 

 above ground than the other moles, and not 

 infrequently swims among flooded cat-tails and 

 other vegetation and in winter has been seen 

 swimming under the ice. 



Like others of its kind, this mole is amaz- 

 ingly powerful in proportion to its size. It per- 

 sistently adds to its surface ridges, and in con- 

 stantly extending its deeper tunnels must dig 

 loose earth and dispose of it by forcing it up 

 through an outlet to form the mounds which 

 mark the course of its travels. Where the soil 

 is loose it readily forces it aside with its com- 

 pact body and paddle-shaped hands. In push- 

 ing up the little piles of earth and in the ridges 

 raised when burrowing close to the surface it 

 sometimes injures meadows and other culti- 

 vated land. Occasionally it wanders away from 

 the fields and invades lawns and gardens, where 

 the only injury it does is in the disturbance of 

 the soil. 



Its nests are compact little balls of fine grass, 

 weeds, or leaves in dry underground chambers 

 excavated in its burrows. The nests are a foot 

 or two underground, but above the level of the 

 water, sometimes under a stump and again in 

 a knoll or bank. One nest containing five young- 

 was found in Maryland in an old woodshed 

 under several inches of chips. This location 

 and its choice of a site for its nest under a 

 stump in a field or in a dry knoll are clear in- 

 dications of a kind of intelligence which even 

 the lowliest animals appear to have in caring 

 for their young. 



The star-nosed mole is full of the restless 

 energy so necessary in a mammal which must 

 come across its food by more or less haphazard 

 tunneling through the soil. It is active both 

 summer and winter. In dry weather as the 



