146 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [Lect. YT. 



LECTURE VI. 



Insectivora — continued. 



My next instance is the Mole, ii distant relative of tlie 

 Hedgehog, and the head of another family. In some 

 things the Mole is more remarkably specialised than the 

 Hedgehog ; he is less ty}3ical, and yet in him I find 

 some of the most primitive mammalian characters. The 

 lowest mammal living, but one, is the Echidna ; I con- 

 fidently expect to find a great correspondence between 

 the skull of its embryo and that of the Mole. I shall 

 show in this lecture how marvellously Marsupial some 

 of the stages of the Mole's skull are ; and I am rather 

 inclined to speculate a little u})on the retention, for a 

 time, during growth, of such archaic characters in this 

 <jld- world type. Great as is my goodwill towards the 

 Mole, I do, nevertheless, look upon him as a coward. 

 The Hedgehog has more })luck in him, but he defends 

 himself l)y a spiny skin, as some ungracious people do 

 ])y a spiny temper. When the old representatives of 

 this most ancient family found their hunting grounds 

 invaded by the liighcr Eutheria — Badgers, Stoats, Cats, 

 — et hoc genus oinne — who came to hunt them, they 

 ))eto()k themselves to the lower parts of the earth. 



