6 
STRANGE DWELLINGS. 
caught without the least difficulty. A few days before writing 
this account, I heard that a pair of Moles were thus taken in 
the fields near Erith, and one of my friends made a similar 
capture on Shooter’s Hill. 
Indeed, the whole life of the Mole is one of fury, and he eats 
like a starving tiger, tearing and rending his prey with claws and 
teeth, and crunching audibly the body of the worm between the 
sharp points. Some writers say that the Mole eats snails and 
other molluscs, but I am disposed to doubt that assertion. I 
have kept several Moles and never saw them eat anything but # 
worms. They even rejected the julus millipede, kicking it aside 
with utter contempt. 
It is also asserted that the Mole skins the worm before he 
eats it, 4 stripping the skm from end to end, and squeezing out 
the contents of the body.’ To prove a negative is proverbially 
a difficult task, and therefore I will not venture to say that the 
Mole does not trouble himself about stripping off the skin of 
the worm. I do not see how he could do so, for even with the 
assistance of knives, scissors and forceps, such a task presents 
many difficulties, and how the Mole is to succeed in such an 
undertaking with no tools but his teeth and claws, I cannot 
comprehend. No Mole that I have ever seen, gave the 
slightest indication of skinning or emptying the worm, but 
proceeded without the least ceremony to devour the writhing 
prey, and then looked out for another victim. 
It is hardly possible to conceive, and quite impossible to 
describe the fury with which the Mole eats. It hunches its 
back in a most curious manner, retracts the head between the 
shoulders, and uses its fore paws to assist it in pushing the 
worm into its jaws. In this respect there is a singular resem- 
blance between the Mole and the carnivorous chelodines of 
America. I have kept several of them, and have always noticed 
that they ate exactly after the fashion employed by the Mole, 
seizing their food in their jaws, and tearing it to pieces by the 
aid of the armed fore paws — one foot being applied at each side 
of the mouth, so as to push the food forwards, while the head 
draws it back. 
