TRAPPING MOLES AND UTILIZING THEIR SKINS. 



7 



following them in search of food. Since the ridges usually have many 

 turns and windings, it is well to set the traps on a part of the path 

 that takes a straight course. 



It is seldom worth while to set mole traps in a dry place. The 

 animal delights to work in a moist, rich soil, for there the digging is 

 easy and there its food abounds. Then, too, a satisfactory adjust- 

 ment of the working parts of a trap can not be made in dry dirt. 

 The more recent the signs of mole activity at any particular spot the 

 better the chances for successful trapping. It will pay to run the 

 traps twice a day, morning and evening. In the summer season they 

 should be visited also in the middle of the day, for the hair soon 

 becomes loose on a mole pelt in even moderately warm weather. 



Trapping moles in the Pacific coast country may be followed suc- 

 cessfully at any season of the year and at any time when weather 

 conditions will permit. In the Eastern States the work will be more 

 or less hindered in winter by snows and by severe freezing weather. 

 Moles are active all winter, however, and frequently have been 

 caught along grass-grown fence rows and in the deeper runways of 

 open fields when the ground was frozen so hard as to necessitate the 

 use of a pick in setting traps. 



The fur of the mole is perhaps at its best in the winter season, but 

 it is classed as prime in midsummer also. Less seasonal variation is 

 found in the pelage condition of this burrowing mammal than in that 

 of the fur-bearing animals that live mainly aboveground. Never- 

 theless, during the molting periods in spring and fall there is a deterio- 

 ration in the value of the mole's fur. In the Puget Sound region 

 most individuals among the common moles undergo the fall molt in 

 October and early in November. The spring pelage change is less 

 marked and is more irregular in its occurrence, the times of molting 

 varying with individuals, sex, and weather conditions. In a collec- 

 tion of more than 600 skins of the common mole, taken in western 

 Washington in aU weeks of the year, the percentages of prime skins 

 for the several months ran as follows: 



Table 1. — Percentages of prime skins of moles taken in different months. 



WHEN TO TRAP. 



Month. 



Prime 

 skins. 



Month. 



Prime 

 skins. 



Month, 



Prime 

 skins. 



Per cent. 



Per cent. 



Per cent. 



January . . 

 February. 



March 



April 



100 

 75 

 75 

 50 



May. 



June, 

 July. 



August 



SO 

 90 



m 



95 



September. 

 October. . . 



November 

 December. 



65 

 10 

 15 



95 



