THE ORDERS OF MAMMALS 



421 



The kangaroos inhabit the Australian region. They range 

 in size from four to five feet in height to that of a small rabbit. 

 The fore limbs are very small and are used principally for grasp- 

 ing, whereas the hind limbs and tail are strongly developed, 

 enabling the animals to move about rapidly by a series of leaps. 

 The natives of Australia hunt them both for sport and for food, 

 In some localities they are injurious, since they eat the grass 

 necessary for feeding the cattle and sheep. 



Insectivores. - - These are small mammals that are nocturnal 

 in habit and feed principally on insects which they seize with 

 their projecting front teeth and cut into pieces with the sharp- 

 pointed cusps on their hind teeth. Most of them are terrestrial, 



FIG. 286. Garden mole. (Photo, by Brownell.) 



but a number are subterrestrial (i.e. burrow). The moles are 

 stout, with short fore legs, fore feet adapted for digging, rudi- 

 mentary eyes, and without external ears. The common mole 

 (Fig. 286) ranges from southern Canada to Florida. It burrows 

 just beneath the surface of the ground, and is of considerable 

 benefit because of the insects it destroys, though its upheaved 

 tunnels soon disfigure a lawn. The rate of progress underground 

 is astonishing. One will tunnel a foot in three minutes, and a 

 single specimen under normal conditions is known to have made 

 a runway sixty-eight feet long in a period of twenty-five hours. 



