ORDER OE INSECTIYORA. 
505 
it, as they prove an obstacle to its labours. Digging with bead 
and paws, it rapidly hollows out wbat is in every sense its domain. 
In this way it makes a system of communicating passages, which 
well merit our attention. The system is composed of a central 
chamber, hollowed out in the form of a dome, from around which 
radiate seven or eight trenches, which, rectilinear at their origin, 
Fig. 221. — Section of interior of a Mole-hill. 
afterwards become canals, and send prolongations to the surface 
of the ground. The points where these galleries meet the upper 
face of the soil are marked by the little eminences of earth, 
named mole-hills, which are so frequently observed in the fields, 
and which are nothing more than the rubbish thrown out by the 
animal. The central excavation is the animal’s ordinary resting- 
place. To reach it, it has first to enter a circular gallery, situated 
