146 MAMMALIAN DESCENT. [LECT. VI. 



LECTURE VI. 



INSECTIVORA continued. 







MY next instance is the Mole, a distant relative of the 

 Hedgehog, and the head of another family. In some 

 things the Mole is more remarkably specialised than the 

 Hedgehog ; he is less typical, and yet in him I find 

 some of the most primitive mammalian characters. The 

 lowest mammal living, but one, is the Echidna ; I con- 

 fidently expect to find a great correspondence between 

 the skull of its embryo and that of the Mole. I shall 

 show in this lecture how marvellously Marsupial some 

 of the stages of the Mole's skull are ; and I am rather 

 inclined to speculate a little upon the retention, for a 

 time, during growth, of such archaic characters in this 

 old-world type. Great as is my goodwill towards the 

 Mole, I do, nevertheless, look upon him as a coward. 

 The Hedgehog has more pluck in him, but he defends 

 himself by a spiny skin, as some ungracious people do 

 by a spiny temper. When the old representatives of 

 this most ancient family found their hunting grounds 

 invaded by the higher Eutheria Badgers, Stoats, Cats, 

 et hoc genus omne who came to hunt them, they 

 betook themselves to the lower parts of the earth. 



