MAMMALIA 2OQ 



upon which they chiefly live. They are the most primitive of the 

 placental animals. They are absent from Australia and from most 

 of South America. They are mostly terrestrial and nocturnal in 

 habits; many are subterranean; some are aquatic and some arboreal. 

 The two North American families are the Talpidce, the moles, and the 

 Soricida, the shrews. The common mole, Scalopus aquaticus, Fig. 133, 

 is the familiar, soft-furred animal, about 6 inches long, without external 

 ears, with rudimentary eyes, and with huge hand-like front feet that it 

 uses in burrowing just beneath the surface of the ground. This is one 

 of the most useful and least appreciated of our common animals. On 

 closely trimmed lawns it sometimes makes a nuisance of itself by up- 



FIG. 133. Common mole, Scalopus aquaticus. X%. (Courtesy of the Biological 



Survey.) 



heaving the sod above its tunnels, but in the fields and gardens it does 

 an immense amount of good by eating cut-worms and other insects 

 destructive to vegetation. 



It is almost universally considered by farmers to be destructive 

 to vegetation because its burrows are not distinguished from those of 

 that most destructive rodent, known as the Pine Mouse, to be discussed 

 later. It should be remembered that this mole is an insect-eating 

 not a plant-eating animal and it should not be blamed for the destruction 

 of young plants, newly planted corn, potatoes, etc., which are often 

 seriously damaged by field mice. 



The shrews are much less well known than the moles. They are 

 small mouse-like animals with long, pointed snouts. Some of them 



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