The Mole. 
i i 
the ground with the poor Mole in it. The female Mole 
makes her nest at a distance from the male's castle. 
She has young only once a year, but she has four or five 
at a time. 
The following curious fact respecting a Mole is related 
by Mr. Bruce. " In visiting the Loch of Climie, I ob- 
served in it a small island, at the distance of a hundred 
and eighty yards from the land. Upon this island Lord 
Airlie, the proprietor, had a castle and small shrubbery. 
I observed frequently the appearance of fresh molehills ; 
but for some time took it to be the water mouse, and one 
day I asked the gardener if it was so. He replied it 
was the Mole, and that he had caught one or two lately ; 
but that five or six years ago he had caught two in 
traps, and for two years after this he had observed none. 
But about four years since, coming ashore one summer's 
evening in the dusk, he and Lord Airlie's butler saw, at a 
small distance upon the smooth water, an animal pad- 
dling to and not far distant from the island ; they soon 
closed with the feeble passenger, and found it to be the 
Common Mole, led by a most astonishing instinct from the 
nearest point of land, (the castle-hill,) to take possession 
of this island. It was at this time, for about the space 
of two years, quite free from any subterraneous inhabi- 
tant ; but the Mole has, for more than a year past, made 
its appearance again." 
The Mole is very pugnacious, and sometimes two of 
the males will fight furiously till one of them is killed. 
