CHORD. VIA 



393 





passages and chambers underground ; in consequence, they 

 cause considerable annoyance to the farmer in Europe. The 

 tail is generally short, and the body is covered with soft, dense 

 fur. In the United States and Canada one of the commonest 

 species is the star-nosed mole, with a circle of radiating projec- 

 tions about the tip of the snout; it is found from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific. The shrews are found throughout the northern 

 hemisphere ; some species, both in the United States and in 

 Europe, are aquatic. The ciliated shrew, which inhabits the 

 countries bordering the Mediterranean, is of interest because it 

 is said to be the 

 smallest living 

 mammal; the 

 body measures 

 about four and a 

 half centimeters 

 in length, and 

 the tail about 

 two. The hedge- 

 hogs (Fig. 382) 

 are confined to 

 Europe and 

 Asia, where they 

 are abundant. 



The common European species is about twenty centimeters long 

 and relatively broad ; the dorsal surface is provided with numer- 

 ous short, stout spines, and when alarmed it rolls itself into a 

 ball, with the spines projecting in all directions. It passes the 

 winter in a deep, unbroken sleep in a hole or hollow tree, living 

 on its stored-up fat. 



Africa possesses two or three curious species of Insectivora, 

 such as the jumping shrews, whose elongated hind legs recall 

 the kangaroo again ; the elephant shrew, with a body ten to 

 twelve centimeters long, whose elongated snout recalls the trunk 

 of the elephant; and the golden moles, whose hair exhibits 

 brilliant metallic colors. There is a curious animal, the colugo, 

 or galago, Galeopitkecus volans (Fig. 383), living in the East 

 Indies, which some zoologists place in this order ; it has a broad 

 membrane extending between the anterior and posterior extremi- 



Fig. 382. Erinaceus europeeus, the hedgehog. 



Thierleben.) 



(From Breh m's 



