166 CATALOGUE OF THE MAMMALIA OF 
animal, and received the reward, accompanied with the following 
threat, “ Deil tak ye! uf ye catch anither white mole on this farm 
I'll smash your heed!’ No wonder! for the next white mole 
would be the herald of the son’s own end. 
Famity II. ERINACEID/. 
I, ERINACEUS, Linn. 
1. E. nvuropmus, Linn. Heparnoc. Urcuin. 
This animal is common throughout our district, in localities 
suited to its habits. 
The old prejudice still prevails, that it robs the cow of its 
milk; an accusation which could not be better met than by the 
reply of a friend of ours to a farmer who made it. ‘' Do you 
think,” says he, ‘if you had a beard of prickles, like a hedge- 
hog, the cows would let you suck them?” This seemed a new 
idea to the farmer, and left him at a loss for an answer. 
There is no doubt that the eggs of game birds and others 
which nest upon the ground, may occasionally be destroyed by 
this animal, but the amount of injury is trifling, and does not 
justify the remorseless persecution to which it is too often sub- 
jected; and the damage, whatever its extent may be, is far more 
than compensated by the destruction of multitudes of grubs and 
snails. 
Their partiality for insects makes them very serviceable in 
clearing houses of cockroaches; but the service is fatal to the 
poor hedgehog, which soon falls a victim to the indigestibility of 
the hard wing-cases of this insect pest. An ample supply of 
milk will, however, retard the catastrophe. 
Famity III. SORICIDA. 
I. SOREX, Linn. 
(Sub-Gen, AMPHISOREX, Dwvernoy.) 
1. §. sipernicus, Jenyns, A. N. H. VII., 263. Common suorew. 
Erp Srew. Fetip Surew. 
S. rusticus, Jenyns, A. N. H. vol. I., (1857) p. 421; 8. 
araneus, (of Engl. authors) Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vert. 17, 
Bell, p. 109, Pennant, Brit. Zool.I., 125; S. tetragonurus, 
Geoffroy (not of Herm. and Duvernoy). 
