70 
THE MOLE. 
fond of, but it will eat any kind of grub or slug 
that it can find in its path. It will pass its life in 
the soil, and will only come up to the top now and 
then. It can not run very fast when it does come 
up, as its feet grow out very much on each side of 
its body : they are of more use to dig with, and get 
rid of the soil, than to walk upon. The Mole is 
most fond of a damp, wet part of the turf to work 
in, and does not like dry sand : its skin is very soft, 
and has a warm fur all over it. I do not know that 
the Mole does much harm, but as it will bore a 
hole in the best turf, so as to make it look far from 
tidy, men take it in a trap, or kill it with a dog. It 
is not easy to tame it, for it does not like any one 
to look at it, and will hide in the soil as soon as a 
foot goes near it : its ears are very keen, so that it 
can hear a step a long way off, and when you want 
to see it at work, you will have to wait a long time, 
and not once move, or it will not come up to the 
top of its run, as we call its hole. Its nest is in the 
turf ; it digs out a hole to make it in, and is most 
fond of a clay soil for it, as the top is not then so 
apt to fall in. 
