CONDYLURA CRISTATA. 
S T 
Audubon and Bachman observe : “ In a few localities where we 
were in the habit, many years ago, of obtaining the Star-nosed 
Mole, it was always found on the banks of rich meadows near run- 
ning streams. The galleries did not run so near the surface as 
th ose of the common Shrew Mole. We caused one of the galleries 
to be dug out, and obtained a nest containing three young, ap- 
parently a week old. The radiations on the nose were so slightly 
developed that until we carefully examined them we supposed they 
were the young of the Common Shrew Mole. The nest was 
spacious, composed of withered grasses, and situated in a large ex- 
cavation under a stump. The old ones had made their escape, and 
we endeavoured to preserve the young; but the want of proper 
nourishment caused their death in a couple of days.” * The only 
nest that I ever found was about two feet below the surface, in 
clay soil, and under a stump. It was composed of grass, and from 
it a passage led to a vegetable garden near by. 
The same authors assert that “ it avoids cultivated fields, and 
confines itself to meadows and low swampy places.” f That this 
is not always the case I have positive proof, for I have caught a 
number of them in our garden. By following the ridge of loose 
earth that marks their progress, and quickly sinking a spade 
directly in their path, a few inches in advance of the moving earth, 
I have often turned them out upon the surface. They pass through 
the rich, soft soil of a garden bed with such rapidity that my spade 
has sometimes cut them in two, though aimed several inches in 
advance of the moving earth. 
The precise function of the curious disc of tentacle-like papillae 
on the snout has not as yet been positively determined, though it 
is highly probable that it serves as a delicate organ of touch to aid 
the animal in discovering the worms and insects that constitute its 
prey. 
* Ibid., pp. 141-142. 
f Ibid., pp. 141-142. 
