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NATURE NOTES 
get away from danger,” he does not see why it “ should not extend to the worm 
as well.” But he also confesses that “this theory needs more proof.” I should 
think it does. I am prepared to go as far as most people in the belief that many 
of the lower creatures receive instruction from their parents ; but one must 
draw the line sometimes, and wherever it may really be, I draw it at worms. 
Worms are hermaphrodites. Their parental duties cease with the laying of 
their eggs. They do not indulge in nurseries, and the young shift for themselves. 
One cannot imagine a bisexual worm getting a lot of little ones together and 
giving them a lecture on the dangers of life. It is almost as incredible as in the 
case of those insects which invariably die before their young are hatched. It 
will not do. 
Mr. Price thinks that a rabbit does not mind being hunted and “is not 
frightened ” by a dog as long as it has a bush to hide in or a hole to run to, and 
when in the dog’s fangs “ does not necessarily feel pain.” Can he picture to 
himself the feelings of a rabbit pursued by a stoat ? It is so paralysed by fear as 
to be almost incapable of exerting itself to escape. What are the sensations of 
hunted animals, especially of such timid ones as hares or deer? As the chase 
proceeds their terror increases, their heart beats faster and faster, and their bodily 
powers gradually fail. The last stage of being dragged down and torn to pieces 
is the least painful of all. My article says cruelty is the “ pitiless infliction of 
pain, whether of mind or body.” Which is the worst? In a life much exceeding 
half a century I have learned that mental pain is the harder of the two to bear. 
So it is with the hunted stag, or the poor little bird that I have in some 
instances seen swooped on twenty times before the hawk’s fatal grip. 
A few days ago a house-martin came down the chimney into my bed-room. I 
caught it, and disitnctly felt its heart beating in my hand from fear. On being 
liberated it gave a cry of joy and joined its fellows. This bird conveyed to me 
its sensations of terror and joy almost as plainly as if it had described them in 
my own tongue. 
There is little doubt in my mind that all creatures “exult in their existence and 
are glad to live,” and that throughout the different forms of sentient life happi- 
ness and joy far exceed misery and pain ; and it seems to me that the cares to 
which the lower animals are exposed are more like the cares of our childhood 
than of our mature age. But Nature has laid down certain laws. She warns all 
creatures in some way or other of what they are and of the consequences of breaking 
them. From these laws she never deviates ; and those who neglect or cannot 
keep them always pay the penalty. It is said that “ self-preservation is the first 
law of Nature.” This is enforced through the medium of pain and fear. Nature’s 
laws are often cruel, but she is only cruel to be kind. 
Market Weston, Thetford, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
October, 1903. 
54 . The Mole. — Last November a paper by Mr. Lionel E. Adams, B.A. , 
entitled “A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Mole (Ta/pa europaa),” was 
read before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. “ Since the time 
when Aristotle described the mole,” writes the author, “ no one seems to have 
studied its habits till Le Court set up as a scientific mole-catcher in France about 
1798. He imparted his knowledge to Cadet de Vaux, who in 1803 published the 
information thus gained in a small work entitled “ De la Taupe, de ses moeurs, 
de ses habitudes, et des moyens de la detruire.’ . . . Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire 
. . . copied most of Cadet de Vaux’s work, especially the imaginative parts, 
which have been copied and handed down by every subsequent writer. But 
Saint-IIilaire also published the results of his anatomical studies of the mole, and 
these form the most important and interesting portions of his work.” Mr. Adams, 
during four years’ work in the neighbourhood of Stafford, has dug through some 
300 moles’ fortresses, no two of which did he find exactly alike ; and has made 
plans of 100, many of which are reproduced in his paper. Many popular 
delusions crumble before the test of inquiry. St. Hilaire, for example, asserts 
that “ la course d’une taupe pouvait egaler a peu pres en vitesse la marche d’un 
cheval dans son trot le plus rapide ” ; but Mr. Adams has never found the pace 
to exceed 2J miles an hour. In the July number of Pearson's Magazine, Mr. 
Marcus Woodward gave a popular “ Life-story of the Mole,” which elicited a 
most original observation by Mr. Alexander Runciman, of Portobello, as to the 
