426 



GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



more than 723,000 animals. Only three-year-old " bachelor " 

 males, who have not started a harem, are killed for the fur. 

 In 1925 the Bureau of Fisheries supervised the taking of 

 twenty thousand skins. 



Insect-Eating Mammals. The insect-eating mammals, In- 

 sectiv'ora, are usually of small size. The teeth are sharp and 

 numerous, and the molars have sharp points for crushing 



Fig. 223. A colony of fur seals in Alaska 

 From United States Bureau of Fisheries 



the bodies of insects. The eyes are often small and hidden 

 in the fur, especially in the forms which, like the moles and 

 shrews, burrow in the ground. The star-nosed mole {Con- 

 dylu'ra crista'ta) is a common American species living in 

 peat swamps and rich land near ponds and streams. They 

 make great burrows, and the earth thrown up may some- 

 times make a pile a foot or more in diameter. The name is 

 given from a fleshy filamentous appendage on the nostrils, 

 which is probably used as an organ of touch. Some of the 



