120 THE SENSES OF ANIMALS 



ways. Moles have flexible noses, and even though they are 

 endowed with a good sense of smell, both moles and shrews 

 use their snouts as a fifth limb and when searching for food 

 will push aside stones or other small movable obstacles ; this 

 they could not do if their elongated noses possessed no tactile 

 sense. 



The same applies to some extent to badgers and hedge- 

 hogs. Badgers do a deal of their searching for grubs and 

 worms by using their noses to push aside soft earth or to 

 supplement the digging done with their claws. Hedgehogs 

 will lift up loose stones with their snouts to get at the insects 

 or worms lying underneath ; and they are continually grub- 

 bing about with their snouts as they seek for food. This 

 shows that their snouts are not only strong, but that they 

 have nerves which convey information by means of the sense 

 of touch. 



Cats and many other mammals have stiff and extensive 

 whiskers, and these are not there for adornment. They are 

 instruments of touch; and the old saying that if a fully 

 whiskered cat can get its head through a hole it can get its 

 body through, is true. This would not be so if the whiskers 

 were not sensitive to touch to a very high degree. 



It is well known that racoons have the curious habit of 

 washing in water (or at least going through the motions of 

 washing) pieces of food. The exact significance of this is not 

 fully agreed ; but one thing is certain : a sense of touch comes 

 into this behaviour, since the object being washed is held 

 firmly. 



The hands of monkeys and apes and, to a lesser extent the 

 feet as well, are much used : in climbing ; in picking off nuts 

 and fruits and leaves ; in manipulating these when plucked ; 

 and, in some anthropoid apes, in making sleeping and rest- 

 ing platforms in trees. These are constructed with branches 

 and have to be arranged. 



Apes, such as chimpanzees, orang-outangs, and gorillas, 

 can use their hands when in captivity for purposes which 

 they would not encounter in the wild. Chimpanzees in par- 

 ticular have been recorded many times as users, and even 

 makers, of tools. They have learned to pull back bolts and 

 other fastenings of their cages, and there are reliable reports 



