a deep flower pot in one of
the main tunnels of the animal, and carefully replacing the soil
above. The mole in traversing his burrow thus falls into the pit
and is effectually captured. This is a very ingenious mode of taking
the animal, and rewarded its inventor with seven moles on the first
night of trial.

There are a number of other devices said to work excellently, but
the above we believe to be the most effectual of all.

There are several species of American moles, the star-nosed variety
being familiar to most of us. The most common moles are the shrew
moles, with pointed noses. The silver mole is a large species, of
a changeable silvery color, found on the Western prairies. The
Oregon mole is nearly black, with purplish or brownish reflections.

The most beautiful of all the moles is found at the Cape of Good
Hope. It is of about the size of the ordinary American species, and
its soft fur glistens with brilliant green and golden reflections.
The fur of this species is probably the most wonderful and beautiful
in the whole animal kingdom.

SQUIRRELS.

There are many species of squirrels found in the United States,
but their fur is of little value, and of trifling importance in
the fur trade; the squirrel fur of our markets being that of a
small grey European variety. Squirrels, as a class, possess much
the same peculiarities and habits. Their claws are particularly
adapted for life among the trees; their tails are long and bushy,
covering over the backs of the animals when in a sitting posture.
They are all lithe and quick of movement, and their senses of sight
and hearing are especially keen. They are constantly on the alert,
and are full of artifice when pursued. Their food consists chiefly
of nuts, fruits, and grain, but when pushed by hunger, there is
no telling what they will not eat. They generally provide for the
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winter months by laying up a store of the foregoing provisions,
either in holes in trees or interstices in the bark, or in cavities
under ground. The shag-bark hickory offers an especial inducement to
these provident creatures in the numerous crevices and cracks
throughout the bark. It is not an uncommon thing to find whole
handfuls of nuts carefully packed away in one of these cracks, and
a sharp stroke with an ax in the trunk of one of these trees will
often dislodge numbers of the nuts. The writer has many a time gone
"nutting" in this way in the middle of winter with goo