CHAPTER III. 



THE BRITISH MAMMALS: 

 THEIR ORDERS, FAMILIES, AND GENERA, 



IN the list of living British mammals we have representatives of 

 only six of the natural orders : Chiroptera, Insectivora, 

 Carnivora, Rodentia, Ungulata, Cetacea. These are easil> 

 distinguishable : 



1. The bats (Chiroptera) have the fore limbs modified for flight. 



2. The ungulates (cattle and deer) have the feet hoofed. 



3. The cetaceans '(whales and dolphins) have no hind limbs 



externally visible, the fore limbs appear as paddles, and the 

 tail is expanded horizontally into flukes. 



4. The rodents have their incisor teeth reduced to two or four in 



each jaw, which are rootless and chisel-edged ; they have 

 no canines, and few or no premolars. 



5. The carnivores have four or six incisors in each jaw, well- 



developed canines, and a shoulder-girdle in which the 

 clavicles are incomplete or non-existent. 



6. In the insectivores the clavicles are complete, there are six or 



eight incisors in the upper jaw, and four or six in the lower, 

 and there are other peculiarities we need not mention, as 

 the order includes, so far as the British Isles are concerned, 

 only the hedgehog and mole, which everyone knows, and 

 the shrews, which are perhaps not unlike rodents, but 

 clearly belong to another group by reason of their front 

 teeth and long snouts. 



Accepting these few characters as enough for our present 

 purpose, we can devote our attention to considering the families and 

 genera of which these orders are composed, so far as our country is 

 concerned. And in the usual way we will begin with the bats : 



In these we have to deal with only two families, the first of which 

 is represented by only one genus, which differs from the rest in 

 having leaf-like appendages to its nostrils, and being without an 

 earlet within the ear. To this genus belong our two horse-shoe bats. 

 The other bats have an earlet and no leaf-like appendages to the 

 nostrils. In two of the genera the ears join at their bases, in two 

 cjo not join. In the first group we have the long-eared bat 



9 P 



