Uncle Paul had just trapped a mole that for some days had been uprooting young vegetables and unearthing newly planted seeds in a corner of the garden. He called the children’s attention to the animal’s black coat, softer than the finest velvet; showed them its snout and made them note its peculiar fitness for digging; pointed to its fore paws, shaped like wide shovels for moving the earth with astonishing rapidity; and remarked on its eyes, so small as to be well-nigh useless, and its jaws armed with savage-looking teeth. “It is a great pity,” said he, “that we are prejudiced against the mole on account of its habit of mining, for there is not in all the world a more pitiless destroyer of vermin.” “I had always heard,” Louis remarked, “and had believed until now, that moles lived on a vegetable diet, chiefly of roots, and that they tunneled under the ground to get them.” “To forewarn you of the errors so widely current on the subject of the diet of certain animals, I described to you in some detail the formation of teeth, which always indicate the kind of food eaten. I showed you that one has only to examine an animal’s teeth in order to determine whether it is carnivorous or herbivorous. Remember the adage that summed up our talks on the subject: Show me its teeth and I will tell you what the animal eats. “The mole is a good illustration: it has forty-four sharply pointed teeth, not including the incisors. Do they look like millstones for the leisurely grinding of grain and roots, or sharp tools for making mincemeat of torn flesh?” “They are certainly the teeth of an animal that lives on prey,” Louis admitted; “the hedgehog and the bat haven’t sharper ones.” “To make you sure of this fact,” Uncle Paul went on, “I will tell you about some experiments made on the diet of moles. We owe them to a learned French naturalist, Flourens. If after you are grown up you ever have a chance to read his remarkable works, you will find them very interesting and valuable. “Flourens put two live moles into a cask and, believing them to be herbivorous, gave them for food a supply of roots, carrots, and turnips. As you see, the illustrious naturalist shared the accepted opinion, the false notion just repeated by Louis. But Flourens was soon undeceived. The next morning the vegetables were found untouched, while one of the moles had been devoured by its companion and there was nothing left of it but the skin, turned inside out.” “One of the moles had eaten the other?” cried Emile. “Oh, what a fierce creature!”