The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-10-01
HOW THE MOLE DIGS.
eURRoWINe METHODS OF THIS ODD
LITTLE ANIMAL.

for a month, comes back as though by
special appointment and plows that bed
from end to end. Back and forth he
works through the loose soil, close to the
surface, heaving up little ridge of earth
wherever he goes. He rapidly destroys
the bed, though that is not at all his OBJ
ject in coming. He Is really out on
hunting expedition. He is hunting for
earthworms, slugs, grubs and insects
which live In the ground and on which
be depends for food. When he has fin
ished his meal, he leaves the bed and
pushes through the turf of the lawn until
he reaches the garden wall perhaps. This
proves a little too hard for him to plow
through, so he comes out into the open,
runs at quite fair speed across the walk
and then burrows into the turf again on
the opposite side.
He probably does this at night, and the
next day the seeds which he turned up
during his hunt through the bed will die.
II the sun is hot, they will be baked in
the loosened earth, or if 1t rains they will
probably be washed away. When the
gardener discovers the damage, he will
stride about the lawn, stamping In the
loose turf with his heel, and we can hard
ly blame him if under his breath he says
some very unpleasant things about the
mole. Then he will probably set mole
trap In the hope that his little enemy
will come that way again. And there he
may have another disappointment. for the
mole is quite apt to stay away until
nice line of young peas or carrots has be-
gun to show above the ground. Then
some night, after a shower of rain has
softened the soil, he will suddenly re-
turn, uproot the line from one end to the
other and disappear as before.
A curious little creature Is the mole.
From the tip of his nose to the root Of
his tail he measures something less than
six inches, and his total length is in
creased by a rather short, straight tail,
sparsely covered with short hairs. His
body is covered with beautiful, soft,
lustrous fur, which may look any one of
number Of colors according to the light
in which you see It. In one light 1t will
appear dark brown, and in others black,
dark silver gray or purple possibly, and
perhaps the most astonishing thing about
it Is the fact that an animal living in the
soil should be able to keep his coat SO
beautifully clean and bright. In front
the body terminates in a naked, cartilag-
nous snout, on the upper surface of
which, close together, are two oblong nos
trils. The snout is very hexible-so much
so, In fact, that the animal sometimes
twists 1t round and puts 1t into his mouth,
from which he afterward withdraws 1t
with a pop resembling the sound which
might be made in drawing a miniature
cork. / don't know why he does this
unless It be to wipe the soil off his nose.
When his mouth is opened. it will be
seen that it is full of little teeth of sew
eral sizes and shapes and that it some
what resembles the mouth of a diminu-
tive pig.
At the first glance one would say that
he had neither eyes nor ears, but buried
deep in the fur are two little shining
black dots. which are doubtless big
enough for anything he ever requires to
see, and about three-quarters Of an inch
behind them are two very small, round
holes which lead to his ears. His fore
arms are hidden by the skin, his curious,
semihuman hands alone being visible.
The fingers are united, forming broad,
leathery palms, which in life are flesh
colored. They are armed with large,
slightly curved nails and are excellent
tools for digging with. The hind feet are
small and slender, naked on the under
surface and clothed with fine, short hair
on the upper surface.
When the mole wishes TO enter the
ground, he brings the backs of his fat
hands together in front of his nose and,
digging them into the earth, makes
stroke just as a man does when he is
swimming. He repeats the stroke again
and again until he is soon out of sight be-
low the surface. As he goes through the
earth he twists his head from one side to
the other and up and down, searching for
earthworms and other dainties, of which
he eats great numbers In the course of the
"a hours. When he finds an earthworm,
he SEXES 1t with the outer surfaces of his
fore paws and Grams 1t into his mouth, bit
by bit, munching all the while, like a
greedy boy eating a banana. When he
is fed in captivity, the crunching on the
gritty particles in the bodies of the worms
can be heard at distance of several
yards.
When In his burrow, a mole can move
backward almost as fast as he can move
forward, and when for any reason he
moves over the surface of the ground he
runs on the edges of his front paws, with
the backs Of the latter toward each other.
1t is difficult to believe how quickly
mole can work his way into the earth
unless one has actually watched and
timed him. Last spring kind neighbor
sent me word that her gardener had with
great trouble caught mole which had
been playing havoc in the garden and
asked If did not wish to come over and
examine 1t. / accepted the invitation,
and, finding the mole an unusually fine
specimen, / at once began taking notes
on the speed with which he could bury
himself The flower beds were well cul-
tivated and soft from recent rain, and at
the first attempt Mr.. Mole was out Of
sight in five seconds. Just as his tail was
disappearing caught hold Of it and pull
ed him out, to give him another trial. At
the next attempt he was gone In little
over three seconds, and again / pulled
him out, to see if he could better this
splendid record, He did not try again at
once, but ran about, as though searching
for particularly likely spot. At last
he found it, and down went his front
paws, with his long snout between them.
could see that he was going to break
the record, and just as his tail was going
into the earth put out my hand to seize
1t. But, alas, my fingers closed on the
air! My friend the mole had struck right
into one of his old burrows.-Ernest Har.
old Baynes in Hartford Times.