d in capturing it, for his foot
tripped over a molehill and down he tumbled--the beautiful sulphur
butterfly having fled across a wide ditch and escaped. Not far from
where he fell there was a thorn bush and a number of unfortunate moles
gibbeted thereon: some had been killed quite recently, so I took three
or four from the thorn with the intention of taking them home and
examining their stomachs to see what they had eaten. In the meantime,
down we sat on an adjoining bank covered with primroses looking so gay
and smelling so sweet. Willy then wanted to know the history of the
mole; why people generally think it right to kill these animals, and
whether they really are blind. May, of course, could not resist the
charm of collecting primroses for mamma. The two boys cared more for
animals, so I answered their questions about the mole. First of all I
pointed out the amazing strength of its feet, its soft and silky fur,
the form of its body so well adapted for a rapid progress through the
underground passages it forms. Look, I said, at its soft fur, how it
will lie in any direction; each delicate hair is inserted in the skin
perpendicularly to its surface, so that the mole can move rapidly
either backwards or forwards with great ease; the fur, lying as
readily in one direction as another, makes no difficulty to a backward
retreat. If you look closely when I push away the fur with my finger
and breath in the neighbourhood of the eyes, you will see two tiny
black specs; so we can hardly call the mole a blind animal; but as it
lives for the most part underground its power of vision must be small.
The fore feet do the work of the spade and potato-fork combined; its
sense of smell is acute, and this, no doubt, aids the animal in the
search of its food; the mole's sense of hearing is also very good.
"Well, but, papa," exclaimed Jack, "a mole has got no ears, so how can
it hear?" There is no outward appearance of ears, it is true, but
look: I blow away the fur, and now you see clearly a hole which is the
beginning of the passage that leads to the internal ear. The ears of
many animals are very admirably made and fitted for the purpose of
receiving sounds, but you must not suppose that because some
animals--as moles, seals, whales, &c.--have no outward appendages,
they are destitute of ears and the power of hearing. But you must wait
till you are a little older, and then I will explain to you the matter
more fully. The little curiou