CHAPTER V 



INSECTIVORA 



Small Mammals living for the most part on 

 Insects. 



This group of mammals^ represented in Britain by 

 the hedgehogj the mole and the shrew, is, as Prof. 

 Huxley has said, very difficult to define, although 

 they have existed for countless generations practi- 

 cally unaltered. No British aristocrat can boast of 

 such a pedigree as the hedgehog. The Insectivora 

 are flesh eaters, but they must of necessity prey upon 

 very small animals, being themselves small and 

 having but poor weapons of attack. Their food is 

 not entirely restricted to insects as the name of the 

 order would imply. Their teeth are of a very 

 ancient pattern. There is no very distinct difference 

 between incisors, canine and molar teeth, and they 

 have not the sharp cutting incisors of the rodents. 

 Their coverings vary from the velvet jacket of the 

 mole to the hard spines of the hedgehog, and their 

 forms are remarkably specialised in accordance with 

 their modes of life. 



