378 



MAMMALIA 



it loveth, or it loveth him, because it is feared of all." (Ingersoll, 



1906 p. 71.) 



Physicians report the characteristics of the shrew as occurring 

 in certain women and men as well. Perhaps dementia praecox and 

 paranoiac tendencies may be fostered by a policy of letting children 

 have their own sweet will, and only defending oneself from their 

 actual blows. 



Fig. 212. Smoky shrew. (Courtesy of W. Va. Exp. Sta.) 



The moles ( Talpidae) have vestigial eyes, broad, spade-like front 

 teeth and no neck. Unlike the shrew, the animals have no external 

 ears or external eyes. There are twelve species. On the body the 

 mole has fine, thick velvety fur, but the tail is hairless. 



The common mole is gray in color, with webbed hind feet, and 

 reaches a length of about six inches. It burrows in loose earth and 

 in ten seconds will leave upheaved tunnels. Hornaday timed a 

 mole in a clover field and found that it had tunnelled twenty-three 

 feet in seven hours. 



The star-nosed mole has, on the tip of its nose, eighteen ray-like 

 points, with four smaller ones between them. It burrows into 

 swamps along the banks of ponds and brooks and apparently is 

 adapted to an aquatic life. It devours fish, fish eggs and water 

 snakes and also feeds on insects and worms. 



The common European hedgehog has an armor of short, stiff, 

 sharp gray spines which are not barbed as in the porcupine and which 



