WOL FERINE — 1NSECTIV0RES—BA TS 395 



the following autumn. Mink emit a stronger smell than any other members of their 

 t ribe, being surpassed in this respect only by the American skunks. Formerly mink- 

 fur was so little appreciated that it hardly paid for collecting, but nowadays it is 

 of considerable value ; consequently the animal is more sought after, so that the 

 numbers are diminished. 



Another representative of the weasel family no longer inhabiting 



Wolverine. . . J ■ ° a 



central Europe is the wolverine, or glutton (Gulo luscus), which 



although still found in the noi'th of Europe has a much greater distributional 



area in northern Asia, under which it will be more fully noticed. The badger is 



unknown north of latitude 69°, but the otter is indigenous in Lapland. The 



last of the beasts-of-prey inhabiting the temperate parts of the north is the 



brown bear, a species formerly distributed all over Europe, which will be dealt 



with in a subsequent section. 



Among the insect-feeders, the hedgehog in Scandinavia ranges 

 Insectivores. ° > o » & 



to 63° N. latitude, and in Russia to 61° N. latitude, while the mole 



occurs as far north as the Dwina in Russia and the Dovre Mountains in Norway. 



The pigmy shrew has been found in 61° N. latitude, but the other central European 



shrews do not reach so far north. 



The number of northern mammals being comparatively small, it 

 Bats. . . o 1 j < 



is somewhat surprising to find among a group like the bats, whose 

 membei's have to undergo a winter sleep, a species peculiar to these chilly regions. 

 This is the northern bat {Vespertilio borealis), which is of a dark blackish 

 brown above, and is not unlike the Alpine bat, but lighter below. Its total length 

 is about 4 inches, the tail measures If inches, and the expanse of its wings is 

 lOi inches. The species is distributed in a remarkable manner, for it has been 

 observed on the heights of the Scandinavian Peninsula, in Denmark, in northern 

 Russia, where it seems to range up to the neighbourhood of the White Sea, in the 

 central Ural Mountains, and in the Altai. It is an exclusively northern animal, 

 and the only bat which is not found farther south than northern Germany. Its 

 northern nature is apparent even in the Hartz Mountains, where it inhabits only 

 the heights, coming abroad soon after sunset, in order to fly about on the edges of 

 the forest, or in open places, or the neighbourhood of villages, and not returning 

 until dawn. It is indifferent to wind and weather ; flies quickly and perseveringly, 

 and darts down on its prey in sharp curves. Sleeping during the winter in nooks 

 and holes inside houses (especially those built of wood) soundly and continuously, 

 it wakes in the first mild days of spring. This bat is remarkable for its 

 wanderings — in northern Russia, like the birds of passage, travelling great distances 

 as the seasons change. It is found almost everywhere from the Baltic to the 

 neighbourhood of the White Sea, but in spring and the beginning of summer is to 

 be nowhere seen in the northern parts of its habitat, to which it migrates in 

 August, wdien the nights grow longer and darker. It thus appears that the short 

 and light June and July nights of the high north do not agree with this bat, and 

 that in the second half of summer, provided its young are big enough, it migrates 

 to the northern limits of its range, traversing a distance of 10 degrees of latitude. 

 The parti-coloured, the rough-skinned, and the pipistrelle bats are found 

 in southern Scandinavia and the corresponding latitudes of Russia, while 



