76 



SOME INSECT EATERS 



hog forms a burrow beneath the ground and spends the 

 larger part of the time there. In winter it sleeps away 

 the cold days in a state of hibernation or winter sleep. 

 At this time even a close examination of the little sleeper 

 sometimes fails to show any outward sign of breathing. 

 For weeks it lies in its soft nest without apparent life, 

 neither eating nor drinking, its life at the lowest ebb. In 

 the spring it comes out and begins its search for insect 

 food. It uses its spiny envelope for a variety of pur- 

 poses, one being as a sort of bumper, the little animal 

 having been seen to climb a wall and deliberately leap 

 into the air coiling as it fell, and landing on its sharp 

 spines, to roll away unharmed. 



Fig. 55. — Bat in Flight. 



Of all the insect eaters, the bats (Fig. 55) are the best 

 known. They are milk-giving animals, with the fore limbs 



