THE INSECTIVORES. 53 



for the neighbourhood of water, over the surface of which it 

 skims. Towards the latter part of June, or the commencement 

 of July, the female produces a single young one. 



THE INSECTIVORES. ORDER INSECTIVORA. 



Closely allied in the structure of their teeth and many othei 

 portions of their organisation to the Bats, the small and mostly 

 terrestrial Mammals, commonly known as Insectivores, may be 

 distinguished from the Chiroptera on the one hand, by the 

 absence of wings and the normal conformation of the fore 

 limb, and from the land Carnivora on the other by the circum- 

 stance that a pair of teeth in each jaw are not specially modified 

 to act one against each other with a scissor-like action. Their 

 feet, which are always more or less nearly plantigrade, are 

 generally furnished with five toes, carrying claws, and, with the 

 exception of an aberrant West African genus, collar-bones, or 

 clavicles, are invariably present. As a rule, the distinction 

 between incisor, canine, pre-molar, and molar teeth is less well 

 marked than in the majority of Mammals ; but such distinctions 

 do exist. The number of incisor teeth in the lower jaw is 

 never reduced to a single pair, and the molar teeth have well- 

 developed roots and short crowns — the latter surmounted with 

 sharp cusps, which may be arranged either in the form of the 

 letter W (as in all the British representatives of the Order), or 

 in a V. 



Although there is a remarkable difference in the external 

 form of the various members of the Insectivora, some being 

 robust, while others are slim, and some, again, having a coat 

 of softest velvet, and others a covering of hard spines, yet 

 nearly all are characterised by the elongation of the muzzle, 

 which projects considerably beyond the extremity of the lower 

 jaw. Unlike the Bats, where they are situated on the breast, 

 the Insectivores invariably have their numerous teats placed 



