COMMON MOLE. 
453 
supplies her young with such roots or insects as 
she can provide ; but they contribute still more to 
the general safety ; for as the mole is very quick 
of hearings the instant she perceives her little ha- 
bitation attacked, she takes to her burrow, and un- 
less the earth be dug away by several men at once* 
she and her voung always make a good retreat. 
Moles, like the beavers, and some other qua- 
drupeds, live in pairs ,* and so lively and recipro- 
cal an attachment subsists between* them, that they 
seem to disrelish all other society. In their dark 
abodes they enjoy the placid habits of repose and 
of solitude ; they also have the art of securing 
themselves from injury, of almost instantaneously 
making an asylum or habitation, and of obtaining 
a plentiful subsistence, without the necessity ot 
going abroad. They shut up the entrance to their 
retreats, and seldom leave them, unless compelled 
by the admission of water, or when their mansions 
are demolished 
During the summer, these animals run in search 
of food, in the night, among the grass ; and 
thus frequently become the prey of owls. They 
exhibit a considerable degree of art in skinning 
the worms, which they always do before they 
exit them ; stripping the skin from end to end, and 
squeezing out all the contents of the body. 
The verdant circles in the meadows and pas- 
tures, called by the country people fairy-rings, are 
supposed to be owing to the operations of the 
moles ; who, at certain seasons, perform their bur~ 
rowing by circumgyrations ; and this, loosening 
the soil, gives to the surface directly over these 
tracks greater fertility and rankness of grass than 
is seen in other parts. 
When moles are first taken, either by digging or 
otherwise, they utter a shrill scream, and prepare 
for their defence by exerting the strength of their 
