American Moles. 7 



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low, semicircular, or fan-shaped accumulations of fine dirt more or 

 less to one side of the burrow exit. 



The more permanent tunnels of the mole commonly run along 

 fences, hedges, walks, plant rows, and the ridges of open fields. 

 Such situations are the more frequented by the mole because they 

 offer some concealment or shelter and are less often disturbed by 

 the activities of man. These burrows vary in depth from 2 or 3 

 inches to levels beneath the reach of the plow. They constitute a 

 labyrinth of runways, constructed with apparently no definite plan 

 and including here and there an enlargement. One or more of these 



B674t.l 



Fig. 4. — Mounds characteristic of moles in the Paciiic coast region (see also fig. (>). 

 These thickly dot the areas infested by the Townsend mole in Washington and 

 Oregon. They are not usually found in areas frequented by eastern moles. 



enlargements may, especially in the breeding season, contain a nest 

 of half-dried grass or of grass and dead leaves. 



Certain galleries or passages leading out from the deeper central 

 s^^stem trend upward here and there to join the shallow subsurface 

 runs that stretch out over the mole's hunting grounds (fig. 6). 

 Through these runs, the little animal hurries along at irregular 

 intervals in search of food and, when occasion demands, extends 

 the limits of its operations by pushing out into untouched soil. 



As it extends the subsurface runways the movement of the mole 

 is almost literally one of swimming. With powerful action of the 



