192 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



dormant in the soil, and started into life on 

 being disturbed. Macauley's words are so 

 graphic that they are well worth quoting — 

 "During many months the ground was 

 strewn with skulls and bones of men and 

 horses, and with fragments of hats and 

 shoes, saddles and h6lsters. The next sum- 

 mer the soil, fertilised by twenty thousand 

 corpses, broke forth into millions of poppies. 

 The traveller who, on the road from Saint 

 Trou to Tirleraont, saw that vast sheet of 

 rich scarlet spreading from Landen to 

 Neerwinden could hardly help fancying 

 that the figurative prediction of the Hebrew 

 prophet was literally accomplished, that the 

 earth was disclosing her blood and refusing 

 to cover the slain." — John E. Robson, 

 Hartlepool. 



25- 



The Mole and Its Castle. — I think 

 that Mr. Decie in his query and reference 

 to my paper on the Mole, has made me say 

 something I did not say. The word " castle' ' 

 is not in my paper at all. I used the term 

 habitation, and carefully refrained from 

 giving my own authority even about this, 

 prefacing my remarks with " The mole is 

 said," &c. Mr. Decie, no doubt, as well as 

 mvself knows where, in popular Natural 

 Histories, such statements are made, and 

 such terms used. I have seen a figure in 

 more than one of these books, of the fortress 

 of the mole, surrounded with lines almost 

 like the trenches by v>;hich a besieging force 

 approaches a walled city, and it occurred to 

 me that it was very likely the term " castle," 

 and " fortress," in connection with moles, 

 had arisen from the appearance such a 

 drawing presents. The lines representing 

 the trenches, are doubtless the runs of the 

 animal. Without knoning anything more 

 about the matter than I did two years ago 

 when that paper was written, I would now 

 suggest to Mr. Decie and others interested, 

 whether the nest of the mole, and " mole's 

 castle " are not synonymous terms. The 

 nest I believe is always made where several 



run converge. Mr. Gregson said, this was 

 always at the highest portion of the ground, 

 and it seems reasonable that it should be so, i 

 otherwise the young might be drowned in ' 

 the nest in wet weather. If then the safest j 

 place is selected as the site for the nest, | 

 surely the same place v/ould be selected for ; 

 the winter retreat. I am only reasoning * 

 about it, and not taking anything as a fact. 

 I met with an old molecatcher in my rambles 

 the other day and tried to get some informa- 

 tion from him, but I came to the conclusion j 

 he either had none to impart, or he was afraid j 

 I should set up a rival establishment. He 

 talked about the mole's castle as if it were i 

 really a fortified place ; and when I disputed j 

 his statement that the mole lived on the I 

 roots of grass and other plants, he gave me j 

 a look that ought to have scorched me up | 

 on the spot, then walked away muttering 

 something I could imagine to be the reverse 

 of complimentary to myself. Since the note 

 in Vol. II. about mole tracks on snow, I 

 have had the opportunity of seeing such 

 marks for myself, and for some time was 

 much puzzled to knov/ what the tracks 

 v/ere. At last I decided they were those of 

 moles, and I Vv-ill conclude these notes with j 

 another query. I expressed my inability in i: 

 the paper referred to above, to explain the 

 small size of the holes through which moles 

 throw out the soil. To this I have seen j 

 no reply. May I ask, further, if anyone has j 

 seen evidence of the manner in which moles j 

 reach the surface of the snovv^ and burrow | 

 again ? I tried in vain to make it out my- ] 

 self. — J. Osborne.- |j 



EXCHANGE. j 



Duplicates. — Imagines of M. artemis and \ 



D. ccevuleocephala ; larvae of E. lanestris, V. lo, A 

 Y. ehctata, H. defoliaria, and P. pilosaria, and 



ova of A'", ziczac from Irish specimens. { 



Desiderata. — Larvse or pupae of Lepidop- '] 



tera. — (Miss) Prescott Decie, Bockleton i 

 Court, Tenbury. 



