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A Pica for the Moles. 



without stint is only what may be expected from an animal-feeder; 

 but that it should swim with ease is an accomplishment we should 

 scarcely have looked for in so thoroughly terrestrial a creature : and 

 yet that it does swim without difficulty is quite certain ; and it will 

 even, on occasion, cross a considerable river, the flat broad palms of 

 the fore feet being doubtless very useful as paddles in such aquatic 

 migrations. 



As regards its food, I have already said that worms, grubs, and 

 insects of all sorts constitute its diet ; but we shall form but a very 

 erroneous notion of the part it plays in clearing our ground of 

 noxious creatures, unless we appreciate the fact that it is the wire- 

 worm, so destructive a pest in our cornfields, which is the more 

 especial object of its search, and with which it chiefly delights to 

 satisfy its voracious appetite; the wire- worm, the dread of the 

 agriculturist, and the ruin of many a promising crop ; the scarcely 

 less hated grub of the common cockchafer (Melolontha vulgaris), 

 which remains in the larva state for no less than four years, and, 

 during that prolonged existence as a grub, contrives to effect in- 

 calculable injury on our meadows : these and sundry kindred species 

 of noxious grubs and worms as well as insects form the principal 

 part of the prey of this indefatigable little quadruped. 



So much then for its general habits and mode of life. And now 

 I come to speak more fully of its consummate skill as a miner, in 

 the long galleries and tunnels it forms, not by any means at hap- 

 hazard, but after a clever design which its instinct teaches it to carry 

 out. I shall perhaps best describe its subterranean excavations, if 

 I divide them into two classes ; those which are more permanent, 

 (as the high road or run which traverses the whole length of the 

 domain ; the castle or fortress, which is the general habitation ; and 

 the nest or nursery, which is quite a distinct summer dwelling-place :) 

 and those which are more temporary, (as the lateral galleries, which 

 diverge in all directions from the main track, and are in fact the 

 happy hunting-grounds of its daily excursions.) These last-men- 

 tioned are, as might be expected, of a less finished and elaborate 

 character than those which are of more permanent utility, and are 

 generally abandoned (at least for a time) when the soil thereabouts 



