American Moles. 



11 



The character of the food has been the subject of much discussion, 

 but the multiplied evidence of digestive tract, dentition, stomach 

 content, and choice of food when in captivity leaves no doubt that 

 the mole is a carnivorous animal, though vegetable matter is some- 

 times found in its stomach. An examination of 200 stomachs of the 

 common eastern mole, taken in all months of the year, demonstrated 

 that earthworms and white grubs constitute the bulk of the food. 

 Beetles and their larvae and other insects that enter the ground, 

 spiders, centipedes, cocoons, and puparia also form a portion. In 

 one stomach Avere found the remains of 171 small white grubs, in one 

 250 ant puparia, in one 10 cutworms, and in another 12 earthworms. 

 The last-named item forms the great bulk of the food of the moles 



BI8643. 



Fig. 8. — Young of the- Townsend mole in nest removed from underground chamber. 

 The eastern mole averages about four to the litter. The number in the litter of the 

 Townsend mole is commonly three, as here pictured. 



of the Northwest coast country, for the soil there fairly teems with 

 earthw^orms, while ground-inhabiting insects and larvae are com- 

 paratively scarce. The presence of more or less starchy material in 

 the stomachs of some moles is proof that the little animal occasionally 

 varies its worm and insect diet with some vegetable food. Seed coats 

 of peas, corn, wheat, oats, and peanuts have been identified in a few 

 stomachs. In captivity moles ravenously eat beefsteak, flesh of birds, 

 fish, or almost any sort of fresh meat, but starve to death when sup- 

 plied with nothing other than grain and root crops. 



DAMAGE BY MOLES. 



From the standpoint of food habits it would seem that moles are 

 chiefly beneficial to our interests, or at least neutral. It is probably 



