Natural History Notes and Extracts 305 



placing it on the top of the earth in his box. He -soon 

 came upon it, went inside and lay perfectly still ; I believe 

 he went to sleep. I fed him with worms at intervals during 

 the evening, and next morning found him active and hearty, 

 hurrying about in search of food. That he had survived the 

 night with only a few worms left was doubtless due to the fact 

 that he was enabled to keep warm in the hay. I do not know 

 whether it has ever occurred to any one to provide a nest for 

 a captive mole, but this is doubtless necessary to sustain the 

 animal's heat, especially when there is no great depth of soil 

 for burrowing ; and the constant failures to keep a mole alive 

 in captivity are due to the want of this quite as much as to 

 the alleged lack of sufficient food. Now. I kept this mole for 

 eight days and turned him out at last as hearty and vigorous 

 as when I first caught him, and this without leaving nearly as 

 much food as I have done on previous occasions when the 

 captives succumbed during the night. 



" I noticed one day, when the weather was somewhat-colder, 

 that he made the nest more compact by pulling in the hay 

 from the inside. On the fourth day he became very restless, 

 so I changed all the earth in the box, as well as the hay. 

 thinking that the dead worms and mice with which I had 

 supplied him had fouled his restricted quarters, though I 

 could detect no offensive odour attending him ; but he con- 

 tinued restless till I gave him his liberty on the eighth day of 

 his captivity, placing him in a neighbouring field, where he 

 made many mounds, and I finally lost sight of him when the 

 field was ploughed." 



Deviations from Bilateral Symmetry in Crustaceans. 



Of six specimens of Alpheus levis (a shrimp) in the British 

 Museum, the right claw is larger than the left in four. In the 

 other two the left is very slightly larger than the right. In 

 none are they symmetrical. 



In a Palczmon jamaiciensis (lobster) the right claw is slightly 

 but definitely, and in all proportions, larger than the left. 



