6 



Farmers' Bulletin 12^7. 



plainl}^ indicate the runways. The ridges show the direction and 

 course of the animaTs hunting paths, which are so close to the 

 surface that the sod or the soil crust is raised. The mounds 

 indicate deeper tunneling, for they are formed of earth pushed 

 up from lower workings, Avhere the soil is too compact to be simply 

 crowded aside. Such mounds thickly dot the mole-infested areas 

 of the Pacific coast country, but are of much rarer occurrence in the 

 habitat of the eastern species. 



^^^B^ ^itsi^ ^^^vSi. 





1 



1 







Fig. 3. — Difference in shape of head and arrangement of teetli in moles and in rodents 

 is readily observed in these typical skulls. {A) Skull of field mouse (Microtus, N. M. 

 304L'4) ; (i?) skull of mole {Scalopus, N. M. 51385). Both are enlarged to twice natural 

 size. 



The mounds of the Townsend and other moles of the Avest coast 

 resemble superficially the earth heaps thrown up by pocket gophers, 

 but usually they can be distinguished from the latter by even casual 

 inspection (fig. 5). The mole heaps are the more rounded and 

 symmetrical and are built up, volcano fashion, by successive up- 

 heavals beneath and through the center of the pile, the soil, in 

 compact little masses, rolling down the sides from the summit. The 

 pocket gopher, on the other hand, brings up the soil excavated in 

 its workings and dumps it on the surface in armfuls, thus forming 



