Family Talpa

My blip name, Talpa, is the scientific name for a number of moles, the European mole, the species that lives in Britain, being properly known as Talpa europaea.

The common name for the British mole has changed over the centuries. Its Old English name was 'wand', but over time this slowly changed to 'want' and the molehills that they produced were then known as a 'wantitumps'. The old name of want was itself gradually replaced by 'moldewarp' (meaning earth-thrower), or in Scotland, 'mowdiwarp'. Finally, moldewarp became shortened to 'molle', which began to appear in the late 14th century, and finally to mole.

The old name Want features in a delightful mole-catcher's epitaph recorded by E.W. Swanton in 1938.

He wanted all his life
and yet by Wanting
His wants were all supplied, and when he Wanted more
He wanted less,
and when he Wanted least he died.

Swanton, E.W. (1938). Country Notes and Nature Calendar.