. Animal life in field and garden . lled the childrens at-tention to the animals black coat, softer than thefinest velvet; showed them its snout and made themnote its peculiar fitness for digging; pointed to itsfore paws, shaped like wide shovels for moving theearth with astonishing rapidity; and remarked onits eyes, so small as to be well-nigh useless, and itsjaws armed with savage-looking teeth. *It is a great pity, said he, that we are preju-diced against the mole on account of its habit ofmining, for there is not in all the world a morepitiless destroyer of vermin. ^I had always heard, Lou
. Animal life in field and garden . lled the childrens at-tention to the animals black coat, softer than thefinest velvet; showed them its snout and made themnote its peculiar fitness for digging; pointed to itsfore paws, shaped like wide shovels for moving theearth with astonishing rapidity; and remarked onits eyes, so small as to be well-nigh useless, and itsjaws armed with savage-looking teeth. *It is a great pity, said he, that we are preju-diced against the mole on account of its habit ofmining, for there is not in all the world a morepitiless destroyer of vermin. ^I had always heard, Louis remarked, and hadbelieved until now, that moles lived on a vegetablediet, chiefly of roots, and that they tunneled underthe ground to get them. To forewarn you of the errors so widely currenton the subject of the diet of certain animals, I de-scribed to you in some detail the foraiation of teeth,which always indicate the kind of food eaten. Ishowed you that one has only to examine an animals 67 68 ANIMAL LIFE IN FIELD AND GARDEN. Jaws and Teeth of a Mole teeth in order to determine whether it is carnivorousor herbivorous. Remember the adage that summedup our talks on the subject: Show me its teeth andI will tell you what the animal eats. *The mole is a good illustration: it has forty-foursharply pointed teeth, not including the incisors. Do they look like millstonesfor the leisurely grind-ing of grain and roots,or sharp tools for mak-ing mincemeat of tornflesh? They are certainlythe teeth of an animalthat lives on prey, Louis admitted; the hedgehogand the bat havent sharper ones. To make you sure of this fact, Uncle Paul wenton, I will tell you about some experiments madeon the diet of moles. We owe them to a learnedFrench naturalist, Flourens. If after you are grownup you ever have a chance to read his remarkableworks, you will find them very interesting andvaluable. Flourens put two live moles into a cask and,believing them to be herbivorous, gave them for fooda supply of
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