Moleanimal

Mole (animal), any individual of the insectivorous genus Talpa, type of the family Talpidas (with eight genera, containing nineteen species), from the Nearctic and Palaiarctic regions. The type-genus (with eight species) has the range of the family. The best known of these, the Common Mole (T. europcea), is found all over Britain, but is absent from Ireland and the western islands of Scotland. In Europe it is yvidely distributed, and ranges eastward nearly as far as China. This little burrower is about six inches long, of which the scaly tail counts for one inch; the body is elongated and cylindrical; the wedge-shaped head terminates in a sharp snout, well-fitted to bore into the earth; the fore limbs are short and muscular, and the palms directed outwards form shovel-shaped organs admirably adapted for digging. The breadth of the palm is increased by a sickle-shaped bone projecting inwards from the wrist, and considered by some authorities to represent a lost first digit or prepollex. The hind feet are long and slender, and, like the hands, of a pale flesh colour. There is no external ear, the eyes are minute, and in the other species they are covered by a membrane. The fur is thick arid velvety, generally black in colour, sometimes with a greyish or brownish tinge; but a paler coloration is sometimes met with, and albino forms are recorded. The mole is a flesh-eater, and its favourite food consists of earthworms and insect larvae. In confinement no kind of flesh comes amiss to it, and when pressed by hunger it has been known to attack lizards and frogs, and even to devour a weaker companion that shared its prison. It is extremely voracious, and requires a constant supply of food; indeed, a fast of twelve hours is said to be fatal to it. For the greater part of the year moles are solitary. Pairing takes place in the spring, and the female brings forth her young, generally four or five, in a separate chamber, usually at some distance from the "fortress," as it is the fashion to call the mole's dwelling. This admittedly consists of a central chamber, from which lead passages or runs, along which the animal goes on his hunting expeditions. But it may be doubted whether the symmetrical galleries described by Le Court, whose figures have been copied into most books on natural history, are of frequent occurrence. Mole-hills appear to be thrown up by the animal when hunting, or in pursuit of a mate. Moles are credited with doing a great amount of .damage to lawns and fields, and are trapped in large numbers; but against the damage they do should be set the benefit to the farmer by the destruction of immense numbers of insect larvas. The "blind" mole of Aristotle is T. cctca, from the south of Europe. America has two genera Scalops (the Shrew-Moles), and' Condylura (the Star-nosed Mole), with a ring of movable filaments, probably organs of touch, at the end of the snout.