as well as simple records of matters of account. They upon to reverse their judgment and confess their mistake. consisted of squared rods of hazel or other wood, upon On the 21st of November, 1787, he made his debût at the one side of which was marked, by notches, the sum for Théâtre Français, and in 1789 created a great sensation by which the tally was an acknowledgment; one kind of his performance of Charles IX. At the commencement of notch standing for 1000., another for 1007., another for the French Revolution he nearly fell a prey to a severe 20/., and others for 20s., 18., &c. On two other sides of nervous disorder. On his recovery and the retirement of the tally, opposite to each other, the amount of the sum, Larive, Talma became the principal tragic actor. He rethe name of the payer, and the date of the transaction, formed the costume of the stage, and first played the part were written by an officer called the writer of the tallies; of Titus in a Roman toga. During the reign of Napoleon and, after this was done, the stick was cleft longitudinally he enjoyed the emperor's friendship; and was no less in such a manner that each piece retained one of the honoured or esteemed by Louis XVIII. In 1825 he pubwritten sides, and one-half of every notch cut in the tally. lished some Reflections' on his favourite art; and on the One piece was then delivered to the person who had paid 11th of June, 1826, appeared for the last time on the stage in the money, for which it was a receipt or acquittance, in the part of Charles VI. During his last illness the while the other was preserved in the Exchequer. Madox audiences of the Théâtre Français every evening called for observes respecting these rude and primitive records, 'The an official account of the state of his health previously to use of them was very antient; coeval, for aught I know, the commencement of the performances. He died on the with the Exchequer itself in England. They were finally 19th of October following, and was buried in the cemetery discontinued at the remodelling of the Exchequer in 1834; of Père la Chaise, in presence of an immense crowd. MM. and it is worthy of recollection that the fire by which the Arnault, Jouy, and Lafour pronounced orations over his Houses of Parliament were destroyed was supposed to have grave. The Théâtre Français remained closed for three originated in the over-heating of the flues in which the evenings, and the Opéra Comique and Odéon were also discarded tallies were being burnt. Clumsy as the con- closed on the day of his funeral. The actors of the Brustrivance may appear, tallies were effectual in the preven- sels theatre (of which company he was an associate) wore tion of forgery, since no ingenuity could produce a false mourning for him for forty days, and a variety of honours tally which should perfectly correspond with the counter-were paid to his memory at the principal theatres throughtally preserved at the Exchequer; and no alteration of out France and the Netherlands. Talma is said to have the sum expressed by the notches and the inscription created seventy-one characters, amongst the most popular could pass undetected when the two parts of the stick of which were those of Orestes, Edipus, Nero, Manlius, were fitted together. A correspondent of the Gentle- Cæsar, Cinna, Augustus, Coriolanus, Hector, Macbeth, man's Magazine' for November, 1834 (p. 480), states that Hamlet, Othello, Leicester, Sylla, Regulus, Danville (in forgeries were attempted immediately after the discontinu- L'Ecole des Vieillards'), Leonidas, Charles VI., and Henry ance of tally receipts. The officers of the Exchequer VIII. He has been accused, remarks one of his biogra commonly called tellers (talliers), as well as several other phers, of having spoken the verse of tragedy as though it were prose; but this avoidance of the jingle of rhyme was functionaries, derived their name from the word tally. one of the greatest improvements which he introduced upon the French stage. In person he was about the middle height, square-built, and with a most expressive and noble countenance. His voice was exceedingly fine and powerful, his attitudes dignified and graceful. In He spoke private life he was distinguished for his manly frankness, his kind disposition, and unaffected manners. English perfectly, and was a great admirer of England and her institutions. He was the friend and guest of John Kemble, and was present in Covent Garden Theatre when that great actor took his leave of the stage. Many different kinds of tally are used in gardens and arboretums, to bear either numbers referring to a catalogue, or the names of the plants near which they are placed. Loudon describes several sorts, of wood, metal, earthenware, brick, &c., in his Encyclopædia of Gardening. Wooden tallies are sometimes marked by notches instead of writing or painting; particular forms or combinations of notches being used to represent either Arabic numerals or the Roman letters commonly employed in numeration. Tallies formed of brick-earth, with a recess for containing a printed card, which is sheltered by a piece of glass, have been introduced of late years, and are particularly recommended for use in arboretums. Instead of being stuck in the ground, like tallies of wood and metal, these brick tallies are formed with a broad base, which rests upon its surface. (Pictorial Bible, note on Ezek. xxxvii. 20; Madox's A popular history of History of the Exchequer, &c. tallies is given in vol. xxiv. of the Mirror (pp. 325 and 341), partly condensed from the Times newspaper.) TALMA, FRANÇOIS JOSEPH, an eminent French tragedian, was born in Paris, January 15th, 1763. His father, who was a dentist, went to England shortly after the birth of his son, and practised his profession for some years in London. At nine years of age young Talma refurned to France, and was placed in a school at Chaillot, which was kept by Monsieur Lamarguière, a great admirer of the drama, who delighted to discover and encourage a similar taste in any of his pupils. A year after Talina had joined the school he was intrusted with a part in an old tragedy, called 'Simois, Fils de Tamerlane, which Monsieur Lamarguière had selected for performance by his scholars; and so deeply did the future tragedian enter into the feeling of the character, that he burst into a flood of tears at the recital of the sorrows of the hero, whose brother he represented. At the age of twelve he wrote a little drama, in the composition of which he further developed his knowledge of the stage. He again visited London, and returned a second time to Paris at the latter end of the year 1781, when he commenced the study of logic in the Collège Mazarin. In d'essai at the Théâtre de Doyen, in 1783 he made a coup the character of Seide, in the tragedy of Mahomet.' A council of friends, appointed by himself, to judge of his performance, pronounced it a failure: He had not le feu sarré. Talma deferred to this unfavourable opinion, and quietly resumed the study of his father's profession; but a few years afterwards the very same friends were called P. C., No. 1490. . (Almanach des Spectacles, 1827; Biographie Nouvelle des Contemporains; New Monthly Mag.; Personal Recollections.) TALMUD. [HEBREW LANGUAGE.] TALPA. [TALPIDE.] TALPASO REX, M. Lesson's name for a genus of SoRECIDE, comprising the Shrew-mole. [Vol. xxii., p. 265.] TAʼLPIDE, the family of Moles. The genus Talpa of Linnæus, as it stands in the 12th edition of the Systema Natura, between the genera Didelphis and Sorex, comprises two species only, Talpa Europea, the Common Mole, and Talpa Asiatica. [CHRY SOCHLORIS.] Cuvier places the Moles, confining them to the genus ORGANIZATION. PO Skeleton of Mole. (De Blainville.) The nuchal bone and accessory carpal sabre-shaped bone are here shown. living form has the compressed phalangeal bones seen in Glyptodon except the mole. The second phalanx of the anterior digits or fingers of the mole is the only known living analogue of the similar bone in the hind-foot of Glyptodon. The sternum, like that of the birds and bats, has an elevation or crest affording room for the large pectoral muscles. The pelvis and hinder extremities are comparatively feeble. The bones of the pubis are not joined. This bony framework is set in motion by very powerful muscles. Those of the anterior extremities, the chest, and the neck are most vigorous, and in the cervical ligament a peculiar bone is even formed. The wide hand, which is the great instrument of action, and performs the offices of a pickaxe and shovel, is sharp-edged on its lower margin, and, when clothed with the integuments, the fingers are hardly distinguishable, but the terminating claws project long, strong, flat, and trenchant. Let us compare for a moment the bats with the moles with reference to their locomotion. Both are insectivorous, but how widely different in their conformation. The bat has to winnow its way through the air: the mole, like the bat, has to react against a given medium, a very different one, certainly; and is endowed with a power of moving through that medium by means of a modification of the locomotive organs beautifully adapted to its density. Instead of the lengthened bones of the forearm that so well assist the bat to make its way with outstretched wing through the air, all in this part of the organization of the mole is short and compact, to enable it to bore through the dense medium where it is to live and move and have its being. The development is all anterior: the fore part of the mole forms an elongated cone; the posterior part is narrow and small, and the whole of its proportions are admirably fitted to assist it, so to speak, in flying through the earth. The long and almost round scapula, the expanded humerus, the enormous power, in short, of the anterior extremities, and the great strength and compactness of the fingers, are all fitted for the digging duty they have to do. Add to this a soft short-cut velvety coat, to which no particle of soil ever adheres, and you have the perfection of organization for rapid progress through the ground. Nor is it void of interest to observe the niceties of adaptation according to circumstances. The CHRYSOCHLORIS (Talpa aurea of the older authors) is an inhabitant of Africa, and burrows in sand. This medium required a modification of organization different from that required to permeate the heavier soils, and we have it. Though some of the bones are strong, the general strength is less than in the common Mole. The principal burrowing instrument is the great double anterior toe (ring-finger), and there is an enormous development of the pisiform bone. In the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, in London, No. 282 G, of the Physiological Series, shows the anterior half of the body of a Mole (Tulpa Europea, Linn.), in which the diaphragm and principal muscles of the right extremity are dissected and exposed, as illustrative of one of the principal structures for burrowing. Nervous System and Senses.--(Touch.)-The muzzle of the mole is evidently a delicate organ of touch, and that sense is considerably developed in the large and broad hands and feet. Neither is the tail without a considerable share of sensation, to give notice to the animal of the pproach of any attack from behind. Taste and Smell.-The gustatory and olfactory nerves, especially the latter, appear to be very sensitive. Sight.-Almost rudimentary. The little eye is so hidden in the fur, that its very existence was for a long time denied. It appears to be designed for operating only as a warning to the animal on its emerging into the light; and indeed more acute vision would only have been an incumbrance. No. 1772 (Mus. Coll. Reg. Chir., Phys. Series) is the anterior part of a mole (Talpa Europea, Linn.), showing the minute circular palpebral orifices defended by the short thick fur. Hearing-But if the sight be imperfect, the sense of hearing is very highly developed, and the tympanum very large, though there is no external ear, or rather, no projecting concha. No. 1608, in the department of the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons above referred to, exhibits the anterior part of a mole (Talpa Europea, Linn.), from which the hair has been removed, to show the external orifices of the ears and eyes, in both of which bristles are placed. No. 1609 is also the anterior part of the same animal with the fur left on, showing the entrance to the meatus auditorius externus unprovided with a projecting concha, or external ear, which would be an impediment in the act of burrowing, and an unnecessary appendage: the meatus is defended in this animal, which lives habitually in the soil, by the smallness of the external opening. John Hunter, in his Manuscript Catalogue, introductory of this part of the series, observes that an external concha is not to be found in many animals whose life is principally led underground, such as the mole; and perhaps because the earth assists considerably in vibration. There is nothing that calls for any particular notice in the Digestive System of the Mole. The alimentary canal is short, simple, without a cæcum. The voracity of-the mole corresponds with the activity and rapidity of its digestive powers. Generative and Urinary Systems.-No. 2505 of the Physiological Series in Mus. Coll. Reg. Chir. exhibits a mole with the abdomen laid open to show the testes as they appear in winter. They are lodged in large cremasteric pouches in the perineal region, making no projection externally. The right testis is drawn into the abdomen by the side of the bladder, and its posterior extremity may be seen attached to the inverted cremaster: the left testis has its anterior extremity projecting into the abdominal cavity. The prostatic glands, which consist of an aggregate of cæcal tubes, are just visible behind the bladder. No. 2506 is a mole killed in February, and prepared to show the increased size of the testes, and the commencing sexual development of the prostatic cæca. No. 2507 is a mole killed in the beginning of March, and prepared to show a further increase of the testes and accessory prostatic glands: the latter have now advanced forwards on each side of the urinary bladder, so as to encompass its neck: the left testis has been drawn back into the abdomen, and its attachment to the inverted cre masteric pouch displayed. No. 2508. is a mole killed about the latter end of March, and dissected to show the complete development of the testes and prostatic glands. The long penis and its two crura, surrounded by the erectores muscles, are also shown. No. 2509 is a mole which was killed in autumn, prepared to show the collapsed state of the testes, and the atrophied condition of the pro TAL static glands; but the testes in this case had not yet returned to the small size which they exhibit in winter. No. 2510 is a preparation showing a side view of the male organs of generation; and No. 2511 exhibits the male organs of Chrysochloris capensis. (Cat., vol. iv.) on the exterior of the body, and all three canals ne 7-7 The increase and decrease of the testes in BIRDS and FROGS are well shown in preparations in the same noble museum; the first in Nos. 2457 to 2462 (both inclusive), the second in Nos. 2412 and 2411. John Hunter, in his 'Animal Economy,' observes that these seasonal or periodical changes are common to all animals which have their seasons of copulation. In the buck,' says that great physiologist, we find the testicles are reduced to a very small size in winter; and in the land-mouse, mole, &c. this diminution is still more remarkable. Animals, on the contrary, who are not in a state of nature, have no such change take place in their testicles; and not being much 7-7 affected by seasons, are consequently always in good condition, or in a state to which other animals that are left to Therethemselves can only attain in the warmer season. fore in man, who is in the state we have last described, the testicles are nearly of the same size in winter as in summer; and nearly, though not exactly, the same thing may be observed in the horse, ram, &c., these animals having their seasons in a certain degree. The variation above taken notice of is not confined to the testicles, but also extends to the parts which are connected with them: for in those animals that have their seasons for propagation the most distinctly marked, as the land-mouse, mole, &c., the vesiculæ are hardly discernible in the winter; but in the spring they are very large, varying in size in a manner similar to the testicle. It may however be alleged that the change in these bags might naturally be supposed to take place, even admitting them to be seminal reservoirs ; but what happens in the prostate gland, which has never been supposed to contain semen, will take off the force of this objection; since in all animals which have such a gland, and which have their season for propagation, it In the mole the prostate undergoes a limited change. gland is hardly discernible, but in the spring becomes very large, and is filled with mucus.' No. 2807 exhibits the posterior part of a mole (Talpa Europea), with the female generative and urinary organs exposed. The uterus is turned to the right side, principally to display the course and attachments of the ovarian and uterine ligaments. The ovarian ligament commences anterior and external to the kidney, and carries forward with it a fold of the peritoneum as it advances to the ovarium. The uterine ligament, or ligamentum rotuhdum, is continued from the extremity of the cornu uteri, and runs along the posterior edge of the preceding fold to the part corresponding to the abdominal ring in the male, where it expands upon the fascia. The left ovary and oviduct, the cornua and corpus uteri, are also exhibited. The ovary is tuberculate, and inclosed in an The oviduct is almost complete peritoneal capsule. attached to this capsule, and pursues a wavy course to the horn of the uterus. No. 2808 displays the female organs of a mole in situ, the ventral parietes of the abdomen and chylopoietic viscera having been removed. The cornua uteri, cylindrical tubes, describe three abrupt curves before joining the corpus uteri, with which they form almost a right angle. The body of the uterus is continued without any constriction or interruption into the vagina: the whole canal is somewhat flattened, and is disposed in two or three vertical curves or folds before it leaves the abdomen. No. 2809 is also the posterior half of a mole, with the female organs similarly displayed, but minutely injected. The cornua uteri are divaricated, to display the extent of the broad ligaments. No. 2810 is a section of a mole, in which the left ovary, oviduct, and uterine horn, and the left side of the uterus and vagina, have been removed, but exposing the remainder of the generative apparatus in situ, and exhibiting its relative position to the urinary bladder, the rectum, and the pelvis. The contracted area of the uterine cavity, the absence of any os tincæ dividing it from the vagina, and the distinct muscular and internal membranous tunics of the flattened tortuous utero-vaginal canal, are clearly displayed. A bristle is inserted into the right horn of the uterus, and another is passed through the clitoris, which is perforated by the urethra. Thus,' continues Professor Owen, the author of the catalogue, ⚫the urethra, vagina, and rectum open by distinct orifices = 44. 6 8 1-1 ; 0 molars DOODD Teeth of Mole, considerably enlarged. (F. Cuv.) Example, Talpa Europea, the common mole. This well-known animal, so familiar to all that it would be a needless waste of space to describe it, is La Taupe of the French, Talpa of the antient and modern Italians, Topo of the Spanish, Toupeira of the Portuguese, Maulwerf of the Germans, Mol of the Dutch, Mulvad and Surk of the Swedes, Muldvarp of the Danes; Mole, Mole-warp, Moldwarp, and Want of the modern British; and Gwadd and Twrch daear of the antient British. Habits, Food, Reproduction, &c.-' A subterraneous life,' says Pennant, speaking. of the mole, being allotted to it, the seeming defects of several of its parts vanish; which, instead of appearing maimed or unfinished, exhibit a most striking proof of the fitness of their contrivance. The breadth, strength, and shortness of the fore-feet, which are inclined sideways, answer the use as well as the form of hands, to scoop out the earth, to form its habitation, or to pursue its prey. Had they been longer, the falling in of the earth would have prevented the quick repetition of its strokes in working, or have impeded its course: the oblique position of the fore-feet has also this advantage, that it flings all the loose soil behind the animal. "The form of the body is not less admirably contrived for muscular, very its way of life: the fore-part is thick and giving great strength to the action of the fore-part, enabling it to dig its way with great force and rapidity, either to pursue its prey or elude the search of the most active enemy. The form of its hind parts, which are small and taper, enables it to pass with great facility through the earth that the fore-feet had flung behind; for had each part of the body been of equal thickness, its flight would have been impeded and its security precarious. The skin is most excessively compact, and so tough as not to be cut but by a very sharp knife; the hair is very short and close-set, and softer than the finest silk; the usual colour is black, not but that there are instances of these animals being spotted, and a cream-coloured breed is sometimes found in my lands near Downing. D2 The smallness of the eyes (which gave occasion to the antients to deny it the sense of sight*) is to this animal a peculiar happiness; a small degree of vision is sufficient for an animal ever destined to live underground; had these organs been larger, they would have been perpetually liable to injuries by the earth falling into them; but nature, to prevent that inconvenience, hath not only made them very small, but also covered them very closely with fur. Anatomists mention (besides these) a third very wonderful contrivance for their security, and inform us that each eye is furnished with a certain muscle, by which the animal has the power of withdrawing or exerting them, according to its exigencies. To make amends for the dimness of its sight, the mole is amply recompensed by the great perfection of two other senses, those of hearing and of smelling: the first gives it notice of the most distant approach of danger; the other, which is equally exquisite, directs it in the midst of darkness to its food: the nose also, being very long and slender, is well formed for thrusting into small holes in search of the worms and insects that inhabit them. These gifts may with reason be said to compensate the defect of sight, as they supply in this animal all its wants and all the purposes of that sense. It is supposed that the verdant circles so often seen in grass-grounds, called by country-people fairy rings, are owing to the operations of these animals, who, at certain seasons perform their burrowings by circumgyrations, which, loosening the soil, give the surface a greater fertility and rankness of grass than the other parts within or without the ring. The mole breeds in the spring, and brings four or five young at a time it makes its nest of moss, and that always under the largest hillock, a little below the surface of the ground. It is observed to be most active, and to cast up most earth, immediately before rain, and in the winter before a thaw, because at those times the worms and insects begin to be in motion and approach the surface on the contrary, in very dry weather this animal seldom or never forms any hillocks, as it penetrates deep after its prey, which at such seasons retires far into the ground. During summer it runs in search of snails and worms in the night time among the grass, which makes it the prey of owls. The mole shows great art in skinning a worm, which it always does before it eats it; stripping the skin from end to end, and squeezing out the contents of the body.' Thus far Pennant: but the most diligent and instructive historian of the mole is Henri Le Court, who, flying from the terrors that came in the train of the French revolution, buried himself in the country, and, from the attendant on a court, became the biographer of this humble animal. The discoveries of this indefatigable observer have been laid before the public in the work of De Vaux (1803), and a summary of them by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, in the Cours d'Histoire Naturelle des Mammifères. The latter visited Le Court for the purpose of testing his observations, and appears to have been charmed by the facility and ingenuity with which Le Court traced and demonstrated the subterrannean labours of this obscure worker in the dark. One of the experiments which Le Court made afforded ample proof of the rapidity with which the mole will travel along its passages. He watched his opportunity, and when the mole was out on its feed at one of the most distant points from its sanctuary or fortress, to which point the mole's high road leads, Le Court placed along the course of that road between the mole and the fortress several little camp-colours, so to speak, the staff of each being a straw and the flag a bit of paper, at certain distances, the straws penetrating down into the passage. Near the end of the subterraneous road he inserted a horn, the mouth-piece of which stood out of the ground. When all was ready, Le Court blew a blast loud enough to fright all the moles within hearing from their propriety, and the little gentleman in velvet, whose presence at the spot he had well ascertained, was affected accordingly. Down went the little flags in succession with an astonishing celerity, as the horrified mole, rushing along towards his sanctuary, came in contact with the flag-straws; and such mettle had terror put into the animal's heels, that the spectators • Aut oculis empti fodere cubilia talpæ. Virg, Gorg, I., 183. affirmed that its swiftness was equal to the speed of a horse at a good round trot. This experiment was perfectly satisfactory as to the auditory and travelling powers of the mole; but another made by Le Court equally proved that the amount of vision possessed by the animal is amply sufficient for a wants, and that, with all the imperfections of this sense, its sight warns it of danger. Le Court took a spare waterpipe or gutter open at both ends. Into this pipe he introduced several moles, successively. Geoffroy St. Hilaire stood by to watch the result, at the farther end of the tube. As long as the spectators stood motionless, the introduced mole made the best of his way through the pipe and escaped; but if they moved, or even raised a finger, the mole stopped and then retreated. Several repetitions of the experiment produced the same results. But we must describe the mole's domain. The principal point is the habitation, or, as it has been termed, the fortress, and is constructed under a considerable hillock raised in some secure place, often at the root of a tree. under a bank, or any shelter that offers protection. The fortress is domed by a cement, so to speak, of earth which has been beaten and compressed by the architect into a compact and solid state. Within, a circular gallery is formed at the base, and communicates with a smaller upper gallery by means of five passages, which are nearly at equal distances. Within the lower and under the upper of these galleries is the chamber or dormitory, which has access to the upper gallery by three similar passages. From this habitation, we should here observe, the high road by which the proprietor reaches the opposite end of the encampment extends, and the various gallenes or excavations open into this road, which the mole is continaally carrying out and extending in its search for food, and which has been termed its hunting-ground. But to return to the chamber. From it another road extends, the direction of which is downward at first, and that for several inches, when it again rises to open into the lugn road of the territory. Some eight or nine other passages open out from the external circular gallery, but the onfices of these never come opposite to the passages withi connect the external gallery with the internal and upper gallery. The extent of these passages is greater or less, according to circumstances, and they each return by an irregular and semicircular route, opening at various dise tances from the habitation into the high road, which ditters considerably from all the other passages and excavations, both in construction and with regard to the use to whacks it is applied. From the habitation this road is carried out nearly in a straight line and forms the main passage of communication between the habitation, the different portions of the encampment, and the alleys leading to the hunting-ground which open into it on each side. diameter it exceeds the body of a mole, but its size will not admit of two moles passing each other. The walls, from the reiterated pressure of the mole's sides against them, become smooth and compact, and its course is remarkable for the comparative absence of mole-hills, which are frequent in connection with the alleys and quarries, as they have been termed, in constructing which the earth is removed out of the way to the surface. Sometimes a mole will lay out a second or even a third road in order to the extension of its operations. Sometimes several individuals use one road in common, though they never trespass on each other's hunting-grounds. In the event of common usage, if two moles should happen to meet, one must retreat into the nearest alley, unless both should be pugnacions, in which case, the weakest is often slain. In forming this tunnel, the mole's instinct supplies the place of science, for he drives it at a greater or less depth, according to the quality of the soil, or concurrent circumstances. When there is nothing superincumbent threatening a disturbance of its security, it is often excavated at a depth of some four or five inches: but if it is carried under a road or a stream, a foot and a haif ot earth, sometimes more, is left above it. Thus does the little animal carry on the subterraneous works necessary for his support, travelling, and comfort; and his tunnels never fall in. The alleys opening out from the sides of the high road have generally a somewhat downward inclination fron their commencement towards their end. It has been observed that when, on opening one of these alleys, a plen tiful supply of food is found, the mole proceeds to work | distant, the animal sinks little wells in the shape of deep out branch alleys from its termination, up-heaving new perpendicular shafts, which hold water. These wells have mole-hills as it advances in quest of prey: should how- sometimes been seen brim-full. ever the soil be barren of the means of existence, the animal commences another alley at a different part of the high road. The quality and humidity of the soil, which regulate the abundance of earth-worms, determine the greater or less depth of the alleys. Habitation or fortress of Mole. The main road being the highway of communication to its different hunting-grounds, it is necessarily passed through regularly in the course of the day, and it is in this road that the mole-catcher sets his traps or practices his devices to intercept the animal between its habitation and the alley where it is carrying on its labours. Some molecatchers will tell you that the hours when the moles move are nine and four, and others that, near the coast, their movements are influenced by the tides; to which statements the hearer is at liberty to give as much credence as he chooses. Besides the various traps which are set for them, there is, or very lately was, a man who travelled the country with a dog and destroyed them without any trap at all, by the following process: Taking his station at the proper time and place, attended by his dog, and armed with a spear or spud, he waits till the dog indicates the presence of the mole, and then spears or spuds the animal out as it moves in its run. Pointers will stop at moles as steadily as at game, when the latter are straying on the surface. Besides the excavations already noticed, the moles pursue another mode of hunting in light loose soils, newly sown, when gentle rains have led the earth-worms towards the surface, along which they follow the worms up, rapidly digging a shallow trench in the superficial layer of the soil. The female, when with young, is said to be principally addicted to this easier method of subsistence. All the animal passions are strong in the mole, and it is a most voracious animal. It has been supposed that it was a vegetable as well as an animal feeder, and, as a proof of the former, the fragments of roots, &c., found in its stomach have been appealed to; but there can be no doubt that these vegetable matters had been conveyed into the stomach with the earth-worms (their favourite food) and the larvæ of insects. The structure of its teeth indicates that its food should be animal, and indeed mice, lizards, frogs, and even birds have been known to fall victims to its voracity; but it eschews toads even when pressed by hunger, deterred probably by the acrid secretion of their skin. [FROGS, vol. x., p. 493.] All doubts as to the carnivorous nature of the mole have however been removed by the experiments of M. Flourens, who found that moles restricted to carrots, turnips, various kinds of herbs, and vegetable substances which were abundantly supplied to them, died of hunger. The mole indeed appears to require much nourishment, and a short fast proves fatal to it. We must not omit to notice the provision of this animal to secure a supply of water, for its voracity makes it a great drinker. If a pond or ditch be at hand in those cases where many moles use the same common highway, run is always formed to the reservoir: when it is too During the season of love, at which time bloody battles are fought between the males, the male pursues the female with ardour through numerous divaricating superficial runs wrought out with great rapidity, termed coupling runs' and 'rutting angles' by our mole-catchers, and 'traces d'amour' by the French. The sexual attachment appears to be very strong in the moles. Le Court often found a female taken in his trap, and a male lying dead close to her. The period of gestation is two months at least, and the young are generally produced in April, but have been found from that month to August. From four to five is the general number, though from three to six have been recorded, and in one case seven* in one nest. The nest is distinct, usually distant from the habitation, and not always crowned with a hillock; but when a hillock exists, it is much larger than an ordinary mole-hill. It is constructed by enlarging and excavating the point where three or four passages intersect each other; and the bed of the nest is formed of a mass of young grass, root-fibres, and herbage. In one case, Geoffroy St. Hilaire and Le Court counted two hundred and four young wheat-blades. In the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, No. 3573 of the Physiological Series is the posterior half of a pregnant mole, with the uterus and three foetuses, each about half an inch in length, exposed in situ: the ovarium is contained in a thin and transparent peritoneal capsule, around which the oviduct may be observed passing in the form of an opaque, white, narrow band: the uterine dilatation next the left ovarium remains open, and the foetus is exposed inclosed in its membranes; the other uterine dilatations are left entire; they resemble blind pouches developed from one side of the uterine tube. No. 3574 is the posterior extremity of the trunk of a pregnant mole, with the uterus and five fœtuses displayed in situ; one of the dilated chambers of the left uterine horn is laid open, and the foetus is exposed with its membranes. The placenta is a spongy, vascular substance, in the form of an oblong flat band, with its long axis parallel to that of the foetus. One of the uterine chambers, with the corresponding chorionic sac, is laid open in the right horn of the uterus, and the foetus is displaced. No. 3575 presents the female organs of a pregnant mole with four foetuses, each one inch and a quarter in length; one of these is exposed in situ in the uterine sac, two others hang suspended by their membranes and the placentæ from the parietes of the uterus: in the lower of these embryos the foetal placenta is partly separated from the maternal portion, showing the fine areolar structure of the latter, which receives the foetal placentary filaments: the maternal placenta is minutely injected, but no portion of injection has passed into those foetal filaments which are here exposed; the capacity of the chorion is very little larger than the foetus which it contains. In the embryo which has been displaced from the chorionic sac, the short umbilical cord, and the characteristic form of the short and strong fossorial anterior extremities, may be discerned: the external apertures of the eyes and ears are completely closed. The canal leading from the uterine horns to the external opening of the vagina is laid open, showing the absence of any os tincæ dividing the uterus from the vagina: a bristle is passed into the urethra, which is continued through the clitoris. The author of the catalogue (Professor Owen) observes that the peculiar position of the vagina of the mole, on the outside of the pelvis, is well displayed in No. 2810, above noticed, and that by this modification the contracted pelvis offers no impediment to parturition. (Cat.) Heavy charges have been brought against the mole by agriculturists and horticulturists, and the more grave accusation of being ancillary to the destruction of dykes has been in some instances proved upon it. Mr. Bell, in his interesting History of British Quadrupeds, sums up the evidence against it and in its favour thus: In order to arrive at a true solution of the question, it is necessary to divest our minds as well of the prepossessions of the naturalist as of the prejudices of the agriculturist; for we shall probably find, as in most other cases, that the truth lies between the two extremes. According to its accusers, * Loudon's 'Magazine of Nat. Hist.,' vol. viii. |