Anyone who keeps the Mole in captivity must be struck by the perpetual
activity of the creature; it is never still for a moment. It is always scuttling
about, searching for food, eating, or scratching itself. The scratching is due to
the presence of a flea which, strange to say, is practically blind, as its host is
supposed to be. I have noticed that worms given to captured Moles are seldom
devoured entirely at one time. It gobbles a piece, about an inch, beginning at
the end, and then leaves it, resuming the feast again later. This may be due
to nervousness consequent on captivity and the desire to escape. When allowed
its freedom in soft earth, the Mole burrows out of sight in about thirty seconds,
and generally goes down deep, when it disappears. Worms come up all round
the place where it has disappeared, apparently conscious of the danger of
remaining below.1
Two Moles I kept in confinement died after living two and three days respectively*
They drank much water, and both appeared active and well when I left
them in the evening with what I thought was a good supply of food ; but in the
morning they were both stiff and cold, though most of the worms had been consumed.
Writing on the voracity of the Mole Mr. E. Alston says :2 ‘ The quantity of
food which it would eat in one day was astonishing; more than its own weight,
I am sure. During the first three days it disposed of three or four dozen earthworms,
a large frog, a quantity of raw beef, the body of one turkey-poult and
part of a second, and one or two black slugs.’ Small worms are often swallowed
whole, the Mole eating them, as W. Thompson8 remarks, ‘ as an Italian would
eat macaroni.’ In its fierce activity in the pursuit of worms the Mole will
often spring right out of the ground to the surface, and there seize its prey and
devour it.
Mr. Jess, in his ‘ Gleanings in Natural History,’ says that he had been
informed by a professional mole-catcher that the Mole often prepares a bed in the
clay, which would hold about a quart, and that in this cavity it places a store of
worms mutilated so as to prevent escape. On these worms the Mole is supposed to
feed duringthe winter months. In the ‘ Zoologist’ (1875, p. 4493) an observer
offered another explanation for the use of this store— namely, that they were
collected for the use of the young ; he says : ‘ It is a round cavity, the sides of which
1 This instinct of self-preservation on the part of worms is so well known that it is made use of everywhere by fishermen
anxious to obtain a supply for bût. If a stout stick is driven into the soft earth of an herbaceous border and worked round and
round in a circular manner, the worms come to the surface in crowds, and digging for them is avoided.
1 Zoologist, 1865, p. 9707. 3 Nat. H ist. Ireland., iv. 4
were beaten hard by the Mole,: $o as to prevent the worms from attempting to
pierce their way. Inside this there was nearly a quart of fine worms, quite free
of any admixture of soil, each worm apparently tied up in a coil or knot, yet all
alive.’ Mr. Lionel Adams, however, disputes this theory of storage, asserting that
as the Mole fejnot a hibernating animal, and||is flaccid, worms are often found
hibernating together in pockets in the earth apart from Mole run*, the whole suggestion
of aifefllected food supply is erroneous. ■ This accurate observer says in his
paper on the Mole (p; 14): ' I B|ume. that it ik in those shafts where ^ilectio4i|
of paralysed worms have been found, though I have always found them quite: empty.
I have never come across these " stores of worms,” which some writers aver are
contrived by the Mole with malice prepense, but I have often found in early
spring a knot of three or four worrns in a.semi-torpi«|tate embedded in the: solid
earth of fortresses (not in thesiunnels), while I imagine they had collected of their
own free w iB and I see nothing unuSual; in this, for in digging my garden I have,
frequently come across similar knots or bunches of pallid, sickly looking, semi-toiSid
worms, which I surmise hibernate together as do the frogs in the mud at the
bottom of a ditch. The conclusion I have come to | | that where these stores
of worms have been found in " cavities’’ (e.g. the bolt run or the down shaft); the
worms had fallen in and were unable to get out or burrow into the earth in their
enfeebled torpid state, Mr. T. Southwell1 was one of the first to dispute the theory
that mutilated worms were stored b y fMole%; he found, in several cases which
he investigated, that the supposed wounds were merely the cUtella of the worms.
Marcus Woodward records8 that Mr. Runciman suggests that the Molf iin
eating worms bites them at first in such a way that the earth which they contain
is ejected.
‘ The Mole’s staple food is the earthworm, of course,’ he says. ‘ Now the
earthworm, as everybody knows, is filled from snout to tail with earth. One can
reasonably conceive that earth, to the Mole, is unpalatable, indigestible. And so it
is more than likely that though he crams worms into his mouth, he does so with
the set purpose of getting rid of the earth within the worms.
‘Whether the action shows intelligence or instinct, it is of peculiar interest, and
certainly more pleasant to contemplate than the cramming theory. Having caught
his worm, this is how the Mole proceeds:
‘ First he seizes it by the tail, off which he bites a small piece, then he turns
the worm round. This is accomplished with his paws, the sides of which, while
1 Zoologist, 1888, p. 21. * Daily Express, July 27, 1903.
VOL. I.