40 Mammals of Eastern Asia 
the soil, using a kind of breast stroke, while the hind feet thrust 
the loosened earth straight behind them. One of our Moles of 
the western United States, a member of the latter group, is 
sometimes accused of eating choice bulbs. 
The value of Moles as destroyers of pests was recognized by 
very few people until recent times. Yet as long ago as 1876 a 
dairy farmer appreciated them : "The moles are of great service. 
They eat up the worms that eat the grass, and wherever the 
moles have been, afterwards the grass grows there very lux- 
uriantly. . . . The grass where the moles 
have been is always best for cows." 
There are also Moles in which the pe- 
culiarity of the hands has not yet devel- 
oped, and which, in consequence, look 
Fig. 7. Hands of True much like lar S e Shrews. All Moles can 
Mole, Talpa, and be distinguished from Shrews, which be- 
Shrew Mole, Rhyn- long in a different family, by the fact 
chonax to show dig- that th haye complete though ver slen . 
ging adaptation in the * u-i cu 1 wu 
former. der cheek arches, while Shrews lack them. 
The Shrew-like Moles and the True 
Moles of eastern Asia form two natural subfamilies, the primi- 
tive Uropsilinae and the specialized Talpinse. There is also pres- 
ent in eastern Asia a single member of the American Moles, 
the genus Scqpanulus. A few of the Shrew Moles are some- 
what intermediate as regards the form of their hands, having 
them slightly broadened. 
THE SHREW MOLES (SUBFAMILY UROPSILIN^) 
The Shrew Moles include a number of Asiatic genera, rang- 
ing from Uropsilus, which still has traces of external ears and 
has absolutely unmodified hands, to Scaptonyx, in which a slight 
broadening of the hands is present. Most are local or very scarce. 
Uropsilus, Rhynchonax, and Nasillus are found only in Yunnan 
and Szechwan. 
