Field notes, v1478
Page 183
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
V. Memmler 1942 Scapanus March 31, Berglund Ranch, 1450 ft, 5 mi. N. Coronitos, Santa Cruz Co., Calif. We walked down an old grown over road, there second growth Redwoods, which connects the Berglund and Cros Ranches. There were large numbers of mole tunnels on the old road. One could hardly step anywhere without feeling the earth collapse beneath one's foot where workings were concentrated. As we walked along Mr. Hawbecker, who was with Jean T. Boulware, Mrs. H. W. Grinnell and I, picked up two moles lying in opened tunnels on the ground. These were not together but in rather rapid succession. One of these had a cracked skull. Mr. Hawbecker suggested the possibility of Coyotes having killed them much as dogs are known to do, by pouncing on the moving lump in the tunnel, thereby killing it, then digging it up and finding it untasty. April 9, Muddy Creek, 750 ft., Chualar Canyon, Monterey Co., Calif. Two moles were found as loot in a cut hay barn beside a barn owls nest. The heads were mutilated on both moles. The farm is on the main Johnson farm in Chualar Canyon.