Mole

“ If a mole began to fly and enjoy the sunlight it must be counted a new kind of creature, and no longer a mole. The very fact of its passing certain limitations shows that another nature has somehow been infused into it. ”

“ Why, a mole—let’s see, a mole—why a mole is a mole,” answered Gogo.
“I’ll tell you what a mole is like,” laughed the Doctor, who had overheard the Dunce’s question. “A mole is an animal almost the size of a rat and he lives under the ground. He has very small eyes and ears, and he very seldom comes out in the day time, for it is pretty hard for him to see in the bright sunlight. He has very short and powerful legs with which he can dig very fast. He lives on worms and grubs and roots, and he is usually very gruff and bad-tempered.” ”

“ Moles are among the most prolific of mammals; and, in fact, were it not so, their race would have been long ago exterminated. We may, perhaps, venture to say, that by multiplying so prodigiously, they wish to do us a service in spite of ourselves. How tender is the solicitude of nature for the ungrateful human species!
To see the marvellous qualities ascribed to the mole by the ancients, one would suppose that they had made him the object of their special study. ”

“ Indeed the whole life of the mole is one of fury, and he eats like a starving tiger, tearing and rending his prey with claws and teeth, and crunching audibly the body of the worm between the sharp points. Magnify the mole to the size of the lion and you will have a beast more terrible than the world has yet seen. ”

“ A mole, made by the hand of man, adjoins the waves, which breaks the first fury of the ocean, and weakens the first shock of its waters. Upon that she leaped, and ’tis wondrous that she could. She flew, and beating the light air with her wings newly formed, she, a wretched bird, skimmed the surface of the water. ”

“ I have watched a gardener stand for half an hour by one of the little hillocks of loose earth, which, from its movement, showed that the mole was there at work, and remain motionless, spade in hand, and when he saw the earth shake, dash his weapon into the heap. ”

“ If it were not for this, the mole would be always cutting itself with sharp flints as it dug its way through the ground. Notice, too, how both the eyes and ears are hidden away under the fur, so that fragments of earth may not fall into them. Nature has been very careful to suit the mole to the strange life which she calls upon it to lead.
Perhaps no animal is so strong for its size as the mole. Its muscles and sinews are so hard that they will turn the edge of a knife. ”

“ But along with these, we find another set of mammals, not quite so conspicuous but nevertheless very important. We have first, three peculiar genera of moles, one of which, the star-nosed mole, is a most extraordinary creature, quite unlike anything else. ”

“ A mole appearing on the upper side of the temple, in either sex, demonstrates another on the extremity of the belly, signifying to a man a steady fortune and continnation of riches, to a woman happy marriages, and a peaceable life, &c.
A person having a mole near the eyebrow on the right temple, it denote another on the right loin, signifying the party either man or woman, to gain much esteem, favour, love and advantage, and great riches, by Legacies, Dowries, and Reversions. ”

“ Now this is exactly what the mole is always doing. The earth which it throws up is fresh, rich earth from down below, which the roots have not reached. It is just what the failing grass requires. And if the farmer rakes the molehills down, so as to spread this earth evenly over the surface of the field, he finds that it forms a top-dressing quite as good as any he could apply himself. So instead of looking upon the mole as one of his enemies, he ought to include it in the list of his laborers. ”

“ As the mole always likes to make itself comfortable, it collects together a quantity of dry grass, moss, and leaves, and piles them up in the central chamber, so as to make a warm and cosy bed! And the female mole makes a nursery for her little ones in much the same way. ”

“ It was one of these mysterious fairy calls from out the void that suddenly reached Mole in the darkness, making him tingle through and through with its very familiar appeal, even while yet he could not clearly remember what it was. He stopped dead in his tracks, his nose searching hither and thither in its efforts to recapture the fine filament, the telegraphic current, that had so strongly moved him. ”

“ It serves to keep the mole clean. The muscles of neck, breast, and shoulders are very strong. Why? The mole eats earthworms as well as insects. It injures plants by breaking and drying out their roots. Experiments show that the Western mole will eat moist grain, though it prefers insects. If a mole is caught, repeat the experiment, making a careful record of the food placed within its reach.
Fig. 369.—Skeleton of Bat. ”

“ The Mole is a Mole no longer, but a greenish horror, putrid, hairless, shrunk into a round, greasy mass. The thing must have undergone careful manipulation to be thus condensed into a small volume, like a fowl in the hands of the cook, and, above all, to be so completely deprived of its fur. Is this culinary procedure undertaken in respect of the larvae, which might be incommoded by the fur? Or is it just a casual result, a mere loss of hair due to putridity? ”

“ A mole on the chin denotes long life to the bearer. A mole over either eye indicates sagacity and farsightedness. A mole on the forehead signifies mental activity and ambition. A mole on the neck near the front indicates artistic temperament. A mole on the right shoulder indicates beauty and capriciousness. A mole on the left shoulder indicates domestic accomplishments and tastes. A mole on the right bosom indicates tendency to weakness and ill health. A mole on the left bosom indicates a tendency to hereditary illness. A mole on the back indicates characteristics inherited from the father. ”

“ This "hideous creature" is known to French gardeners by the name of courtilière; to naturalists, as a species of Staphylinus. (Fig. 61.) Its great and persistent adversary is the mole: a mammal at war with an insect!
Watch well, I pray you, the mole's movements, which you can do the more easily that here, contrary to his ordinary custom, he is wandering in the open day; the light blinds him,—accustomed as he is to pass his life in the subterranean galleries which he excavates by his own labour. But if he does not see us, he hears us ”

“ The habits of the mole-cricket are nearly the same as those of the mole. When winter approaches, it takes refuge underneath the surface of the earth, and remains benumbed and lethargic in its nest so long as the cold lasts. ”

“ Mole, mōl, n. a permanent dark-brown mark on the human skin, often hairy—a pigmentary Nævus (q.v.) . [A.S. mál; Ger. maal, L. mac-ula.]
Mole, mōl, n. a small animal, with very small eyes and soft fur, which burrows in the ground and casts up little heaps of mould.—v.t. to burrow or form holes in.—ns. Mole′cast; Mole′-catch′er, one whose business it is to catch moles; Mole′-crick′et, a burrowing insect like a cricket, with forelegs like those of a mole.—adj. Mole′-eyed, having eyes like those of a mole: seeing imperfectly.—ns. Mole′hill, a little hill or heap of earth cast up by a mole ”

“ Dream planet-struck by the grape’s round wine-red star.
Nymphs, I shall see the shade that now you are.
{49} MOLE.
TUNNELLED in solid blackness creeps
The old mole-soul, and wakes or sleeps,
He knows not which, but tunnels on
Through ages of oblivion;
Until at last the long constraint
Of each hand-wall is lost, and faint
Comes daylight creeping from afar,
And mole-work grows crepuscular.
Tunnel meets air and bursts; mole sees
Men as strange as walking trees? ”

“ When a mole is taken out of the ground, very little earth clings to it. There is always some on its great digging claws; but very little indeed on its fur, which is beautifully formed to prevent such accumulation. The fur of most animals “sets” in some definite direction, according to its position on the body; but that of the mole has no particular set, and is fixed almost perpendicularly on the creature’s skin, much like the pile of velvet. Indeed the mole’s fur has much the feel of silk-velvet ”

“ Breathless and transfixed the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run of that glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and possessed him utterly. ”

“ The mole is a reversible machine. He can run forward or backward at will. Probably as a result of this habit, it is wonderful how alike are the two ends of his body, his nose and his tail. Each is slender and each is bare; each is very sensitive, and the tail is just about as long as the nose. I think he uses whichever happens to precede, as a feeler, when he is making his way through his tunnel. ”

“ The fur of the mole is noted for its clean, velvety aspect; and that an animal should be able to pass unsoiled through earth of all textures is a really remarkable phenomenon. It is partly to be explained by the character of the hair, and partly by that of the skin. The hair of the mole is peculiar on account of its want of "set." The tops of the hairs do not point in any particular direction, but may be pressed equally forward or backward or to either side. ”

“ To take an56 extreme instance, perhaps you think that moles are altogether uninteresting, merely existing for the sake of lightening the soil and destroying the wire-worm, and, in case of undue increase, fit to make a cap for the mole-catcher and a little skeleton to swing from a tree. ”

“ Of all animals the mole is the most profusely furnished with generic organs, and of course with the relative sensations. The senses of hearing and feeling it enjoys in an eminent degree; a skin as soft as velvet, and its little paws, with five claws, are very different from other quadrupeds, and nearly resemble the hand of a human being; they have great strength in proportion to the size of their bodies, and so strong and reciprocal an attachment subsists between the male and female, that they seem to have a dread of, and a disgust to, all other society. ”

“ The mole is an engineer and miner who seems to have a strange sense of direction practically unknown to many other animals. How he manages to form tunnels and burrows in lines of such unusual straightness is unknown; he always works in darkness, unless it is that he can see in the dark. ”

“ In the picture we see the mole's nest and the tunnels leading to it. The mole drinks a great deal, and in its tunnels it digs wells where it can go down and find water.
7. In the summer it keeps near the top of the ground; but in winter it digs down deeper, to find grubs, and because it is warmer.
8. In digging under ground, the mole destroys the roots of grass and plants, and does some damage; but it does much more good, by destroying the grubs which live on the roots of plants.
LESSON XLIII.
[118]
ABOUT THE PORCUPINE.
1. ”

“ Ginger bread, nice and sticky is the stuff of life, and makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
117 MOLES UNCLE NED he said: “Johnny, you have pained me by your indifference to the mole. I can only lay it to your ignance, cause maybe you don’t know there is such a feller.”
Then I spoke up and said: “The mole is amphibious and lives in the ground. It hasent got any eyes, but its nose is like a awger, cause it can bore through the solid rock and come out on the other side and holler hooray! The fur of the mole is slick and shiny and makes good mufs. ”

“ Thus 'tis with who partakers are of grace,
There's nought to them like their Redeemer's face.
XX. OF THE MOLE IN THE GROUND. The mole's a creature very smooth and slick,
She digs i' th' dirt, but 'twill not on her stick;
So's he who counts this world his greatest gains,
Yet nothing gets but's labour for his pains.
Earth's the mole's element, she can't abide
To be above ground, dirt heaps are her pride;
And he is like her who the worldling plays,
He imitates her in her work and ways.
Poor silly mole, that thou should'st love to be
Where thou nor sun, nor moon, nor stars can see. ”

“ The mole nearly always lives a solitary life. It is very quarrelsome and rapacious. The weasel, fox, marten, hedgehog, owl, buzzard, falcon, raven, the viper, and man all threaten its life. Against these enemies it is, however, well protected by its dark fur, by the keenness of its senses of hearing and smell, and by its rapid movements, and the ingenious architecture of its burrow. The latter is a real fortress.
CURIOUS STRUCTURE OF A MOLE HILL
It consists: (1) Of the chief structure, which is about two feet deep, below the roots of trees or ruined walls. ”

“ The mole is the most hungry and ravenous in proportion to its size and weakness of all mammals. Hunger seems to be a madness with it. Moles eat snails and are very partial to frogs, but oddly enough they will not touch toads. A mole will eat the dead body of a bird, mouse, or small snake, if it finds these in its rambles. If two moles are shut up together without food one will kill and devour the other. ”

“ It lives in the ground, just as moles do, and like them it is provided with a special tool for digging in the earth and cutting the roots that bar its way. Have you ever noticed a mole’s fore feet? They are broadly shovel-shaped and furnished with strong claws. The mole-cricket’s fore feet are very much like them, being short and wide and edged with saw-teeth. With this pair of powerful tools the insect digs its subterranean tunnels. ”

“ The mole cricket is something like the mole in shape, and in the shape of its front feet. It is very like the mole in its ways.
Mole crickets in the larva and pupa state are like their parents in looks and habits. They lack only the wings. The wings of mole crickets are short. They open and close them at each stroke when they fly. This makes them fly with a wave-like motion. ”