THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



8 



domain is intersected. By this main passage or tunnel the mole visits the 

 various parts of its hunting-ground, burrowing on each side and throwing 

 out the earth here and there, so as to form " mole hills." 



The excavations vary in their depth from the surface, according to the 

 nature of the soil and other circumstances. In deep rich soil they are often 

 nearly a foot in depth, while in gravelly, clayey, or heavy soil they are scarcely 

 an inch. The mole often burrows quite close to the surface of rich loose soil 

 which has been ploughed, and sometimes runs along it, forming merely a 

 groove or trench, the principal object of its search being the earth-worm, but it 

 also feeds on larvge, especially " wire-worms." Slugs, snails, lizards, frogs, and 

 birds also form part of the diet of this rapacious animal, and on one occasion 

 I witnessed one in the act of devouring a small slow-worm. Its voracity is 

 excessive, so much so that hunger causes it to become exceedingly furious, 

 and it quickly dies if deprived of food. It drinks excessively for so small a 

 quadruped, and invariably forms a tunnel from its domain in direct connection 

 with the vicinity of a dyke, brook, or pond. 



During winter, when the cold forces the worms deeper into the soil, it 

 follows them into their retreats, driving its tunnels to a corresponding depth. 

 During very severe weather it retires to its fortress, in which it has formed a 

 bed of dry grass and roots, upon which it sleeps until the return of more con- 

 genial weather. In spring it quits this habitation, and rests during the warm 

 weather in the mole-hill. On the surface of the ground, to which it some- 

 times makes its way, it can run with considerable speed, but, if not in the 

 immediate vicinity of its hole, it is easily overtaken. If by the rising of a 

 river its domain becomes inundated, it rises to the surface and swims with 

 great vigour, and instances are on record of its swimming through rivers to 

 higher and drier ground. 



The males are far more numerous than the females, and the former some- 

 times fight desperately, especially in the early part of the year when in pur- 

 suit of the females. The number of young produced at a birth is generally 

 four, and the period of parturition extends over the whole of the summer ; 

 most litters are born in April, but I have found on two occasions litters as 

 late as September, so that in all probability they produce more than one 

 brood in the year. 



The young are produced quite naked, and remain so about seven days. 

 About twenty days after birth they provide for themselves and retire to 

 pastures new. When a young mole by chance, accidentally comes to the sur- 

 face it runs about as if lost, and if not in the immediate vicinity of its hole 

 when surprised, endeavours to bury its head in anything that will afford it 

 shelter One that I witnessed in Richmond Park, during the first week in 



