1920.] 



The Common Mole. 



the heaping np always being from below the surface. Dissec- 

 tions of hundreds of these fortresses plainly reveal the fact that 

 they are not purposely made as escapes, but are purely 

 incidental to the work for the protection of the nest. It is 

 astonishing how well these tunnels keep their shape and do 

 not fall in: probably their sides are tightly pressed by the 

 working of the mole as he pushes the loose earth through them. 



When complete the fortress is from 12 to 14 inches high 

 and 3 to 4 feet in diameter. The nest cavitv is filled with grass 

 or leaves; in it the mole lives throughout the winter. The 

 writer has known a large fortress erected in one night. 



The nursery made by the female in spring is quite distinct. 

 It is on the same pian as the fortress, but it very seldom has 

 a belt ran, and is usually on a smaller scale. 



When a mole erects a fortress on the same spot in the follow- 

 ing year, he never uses the nest cavity previously made, but 

 constructs a fresh nest in the mound close to the old one. The 

 writer has found three such nests, each built on the top of 

 the preceding one. 



The Food of the Mole. — The mole is an insectivorous 

 animal, but, like shrews, hedgehogs and others, it is also car- 

 nivorous. Examinations of stomachs made by the writer and 

 others all tend to show that worms are the staple diet, but 

 that any grubs, leather-jackets, and such like insects are eaten 

 with equal readiness. The vegetable matter found in their 

 stomachs is swallowed inadvertently in the hasty gulping down 

 of their prey. The writer has watched his captives feed on 

 worms. The mole, after seizing a worm with his mouth, 

 would hold it down with his paws, and with his snout feel the 

 way to one end (as often the head as the tail) where he would 

 eat the worm, moving the while to the other end by a series 

 of quick jerks. Sometimes he has brushed away the external 

 t earth from a worm with hi? snout and paws before commenc- 

 ing to devour it. On one occasion a large lobworm had 

 burrowed nearly out of sight, when the mole found and seized 

 it. but instead of togging at the creature furiously and thereby 

 breaking it and losing a portion, he held the worm taut and 

 presently, yielding to a gentle strain, it was secured whole. 

 This act shows that the moles acquire a remarkable experience 

 of catching worms. 



On another occasion, when a captive had been fed until he 

 could eat no more, he seized a worm, bit it with quick bitea 

 along its whole length, and then crammed it into the earth, 



mi 



