Measurements. — Jackson (1915, p. 34) gives external measurements 

 of 15 adult males from Washington, D.C., as follows : Total length 

 163.4 (154-175) ; tail vertebrae 26.5 (22-29) ; hind foot 19.8 (18^21). 



Cranial measurements for 21 adult males fromWashington and 

 vicinity are: Greatest length 34.3 (33.2-35.6) ; mastoidal breadth 17.7 

 (17-18.3) ; interorbital breadth 7.4 (7.2-7.8) ; maxillary toothrow 10.8 

 (10.4-11.3) . Females average smaller than males in size. 



Habitat and habits. — The eastern mole normally lives in sandy soils 

 and light loams in meadows, pastures, cultivated fields, gardens, lawns, 

 and thin woods. Rocky areas and swamps are generally avoided since 

 they are barriers to the mole's burrowing activity. It does, however, 

 prefer moist situations to dry ones. Very sandy regions, such as the 

 barrier beaches that line Maryland's ocean front, are apparently un- 

 favorable to the eastern mole, and many weeks of searching for their 

 signs near Ocean City, Worcester County, and on Assateague Island to 

 the south proved fruitless. Bures (1948, pp. 61-62) , found moles in the 

 Bare Hills-Lake Roland area of Baltimore County to be restricted to 

 the moist or wet soil bordering the Lake and along the two streams 

 that empty into Jones' Falls. He says that numerous individuals were 

 observed at work on the lawns of property fronting Falls Road. In the 

 Ridge and Valley and Allegheny Mountain sections, there is evidence 

 that this species occurs only in the lowlands, whereas higher up on the 



