The color is blackish, grayish, brownish, or coppery. The fur is soft, dense, and velvety. The nose is a distinct snout with nostrils opening upward, and the eyes and ears are not evident externally. The palms of the hands are broader than they are long, and the fingers and toes have small areas of skin-covered tissue connecting them. The tail is less than a fourth of the total length, tapering, indistinctly annulated with scales, and nearly naked.
Females have six mammae.
This mole inhabits well-drained soil in fields, meadows, pastures, and open woodlands. It forms mounds of earth, but much less frequently than other species of American moles. In its pursuit of food it makes shallow subsurface tunnels, leaving raised ridges of soil. In the northern parts of its range, this mole tunnels deeper in the winter than it does in the summer. The nest of dry vegetation is located about 30 cm below the ground in a chamber 10-15 cm in diameter or is constructed under a boulder, a stump, or the roots of a plant.