16 



CLASS-MAMMALIA. 



ORDER S ARCOPHAGA. 



dry soils in Europe, feeding on worms and insects, which its long flexible 

 snout enables it to rout up from beneath the surface of the soil with great 

 facility. The cry of this species is a shrill whistle. In spring the female 

 brings from five to seven young ones, which she deposits in a slight hole 

 lined with soft herbage, and being covered at the top is entered on the side. 

 Towards autumn they are found dead in great numbers, but without any 

 assignable reason. They are extremely pugnacious, and if two be put in 

 a box a contest takes place which terminates only in the death of one, the 

 greater part of which is eaten up by the survivor. They have a peculiarly 

 strong musky smell, which renders them so offensive, that though cats will 

 kill they will not afterwards meddle with them. The Shrew was formerly 

 considered venomous, and vulgar tradition assigned to it such malignity, 

 that it was said to lame the foot over which it ran. " Our ancestors," says 

 Dr. Johnson, " looked on her with such terror, that they are supposed to 

 have given her name to a scolding woman, whom for her venom they call 

 a Shrew." Gilbert White states, " It is supposed that a Shrew Mouse is 

 of so baneful and deleterious a nature, that wherever it creeps over a beast, 

 be it horse, cow, or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with cruel 

 anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of the limb." These 

 absurd suppositions were to be remedied by equally absurd antidotes in 

 the shape of the twigs or branches of a Shrew Ash, gently applied to the 

 limbs of cattle, which are immediately relieved of the pains caused by the 

 running of a Shrew Mouse over them. This Shrew Ash was made thus, 

 according to Gilbert White : " Into the body of the tree a deep hole was 

 bored with an auger, and a poor devoted Shrew Mouse was thrust in alive, 

 and plugged in, no doubt with several quaint incantations long since for- 

 gotten." 



The Water Shrew (S. Fodiens) is common throughout many parts of 

 Europe, in the neighbourhood of streams and marshy ground ; and in the 

 spring produces six or eight young. It is well adapted for swimming by 

 the fringing of its toes, and moves in the water with great speed. The 

 length of its head and body is three and a quarter inches, of the former an 

 inch, and of the tail rather more than two inches. 



The other species are the WMte-toothed Shrew (S. Leucodon) and the 

 la Musaraiane (S. Constrictus), found in the neighbourhood of Strasburg, 

 Chartes, and Abbeville ; Foster sShrew (S. Fosteri), and the American Marsh 

 Shrew (S. Palustris), inhabitants of the fur districts of North America ; 

 the Short-tailed Shrew (S. Brevicaudus), the Small Shrew (S. Parvus), and 

 the Masked Shrew (S. Personatus), natives of Missouri and other parts 

 of America ; the Sacred Shrew (S. Religiosus) and the Perfuming Shrew 

 (S. Giganteus), found in the tombs at Thebes; the Oared Shrew (S. 

 Renifer), found in some parts of England and also in France; the White- 

 faced Shrew (S. Lineatus) and the Square-tailed Shrew (S. Tetragonuras), 

 inhabitants of Paris and other parts of France ; the Beautiful Shrew (S. 

 Pulchellus), found in the sandy desert, near Bokhara ; the Indian Shrew 

 (S. Indicus), in Sumatra and on the continent of India ; the Flaxen Shrew 

 (S. Flavescens) in Caffreland ; the Mouse-tailed Shrew (S. Myosurus) from 

 Java ; the White-coUared Shrew (S. Collaris), at the mouths of the Scheldt 

 and the Meuse ; and the Tuscan Shrew (S. Etruscus), found in Tuscany 

 under the roots and in the trunks of old trees, among heaps of leaves or 

 straw, in the holes of banks, and in winter in dunghills, where it finds 

 both food and protection from the cold. 



TALPA the Mole. This genus of animals is furnished with forty-four 

 teeth : in the upper jaw six incisive, closely, regularly set, and nearly vertical, 

 followed on each side by a long, curved, 

 pointed, cuspid tooth, much flattened 

 laterally and with a sharp cutting hinder 

 edge, to which succeed three small single- 

 pointed or false molar teeth, and behind 

 them four true molar teeth, which, ex- 

 cepting the first, have many sliarp points 

 on their crowns ; in the lower jaw the in- 

 cisive teeth are eight, of nearly equal size 

 and projecting rather forwards, behind them the cuspid teeth, of so small a 



Teeth of Insectivorous Animals. 



size that they scarcely rise above the crowns of the other teeth, and of very 

 similar form and size to the first upper true molar, that is, a sharp elevated 

 point at the front of its crown, whilst the hind part forms a sort of heel or 

 step; three small false molars, of similar form but less size, follow the 

 cuspid on each side, and behind thorn are three true molar teeth, of which 

 the points on their crowns are well developed, and plainly indicate the 

 insectivorous habits of the animal. 



A very remarkable circumstance in connection with the Mole is the 

 extremely small size of its eyes and the minuteness of the aperture between 

 the eyelids, hence it lias been commonly considered to be blind ; and this 

 opinion was supposed to be held upon the authority of Aristotle, and 

 retained till Ray had observed, in his beautiful work on the Creation, 

 " Moles have perfect eyes, and holes for them through the skin, not much 

 bigger than a pin's head ;" and it was subsequently found that these eyes 

 could be used. 



The limbs of this genus present a remarkable instance of the perfection 

 of development in reference to the animal's habits ; for, though the fore 

 limbs have little resemblance in shape to the hind ones, and are but 

 awkward instruments for walking, yet for the important function of tunnel- 

 ling they are most admirably adapted, and the whole general arrangement 

 of the bony and muscular structure of the animal is subservient to this 

 point. 



The hand or fore paw is very large, wide, and expanded like a rounded 

 shovel, and from its front project the last joints of the five fingers, which, 

 with their long, strong, and semicylindrical claws, are as long as the other 

 two joints and the palm of the hand together. The palm is much widened 

 by a sickle-shaped bone, which, extending from the wrist to the root of the 

 innermost claw, and having a thin edge, forms the palm into an excellent 

 scoop. The hind limbs are, even for the size of the animal, small, but in 

 comparison with the fore limbs exceedingly diminutive. 



As might naturally be supposed from such powerful organs as the fore 

 limbs, the Mole is exceedingly active in its mining operations, and buries 

 itself almost instantly when placed on the ground. Jesse mentions that 

 he " turned one loose upon a lawn, the turf of which was on a bed of 

 strong gravel, and particularly hard and dry. Notwithstanding these 

 disadvantages, the Mole contrived to bury itself almost in an instant, 

 working into the earth by means of her snout and fins (for they can hardly 

 be called feet) so fast that the ground seemed to yield to her mere 

 pressure." 



Whilst employed in burrowing, the animal rests on its belly, and perhaps 

 the hind feet being inclined outwards assists in throwing the dirt still 

 further back; but it would seem more likely that the hind feet serve 

 rather as cramps to steady the animal on the ground and prevent it receding 

 by the opposition which the soil offers to the penetration of the muzzle. 

 The earth in these burrows is not always actually removed : at first it is 

 only thrown behind the animal; but as the Mole passes the same road 

 again and again, the crumbled soil becomes gradually thrust against the 

 sides of the passage, and, being more and more pressed, at last forms very 

 solid and permanent walls. Nothing seems to stop its course whilst 

 driving its tunnels ; if the soil be too firm and hard for it to bore, it does 

 not waste its time in unavailing efforts to pierce it, but, changing its level, 

 is directed by unerring instinct to descend sufficiently low to pass beneath 

 it, and having reached more congenial soil, it again elevates its course till it 

 has attained its usual proximity to the surface. Neither are they checked 

 by water; for Mr. Bruce (Lin. Trans, vol. iii.) mentions one which was 

 seen at 10 o'clock at night close to an islet in the Loch of Clunie, and 

 which must in passing from the main land have swum a distance of 180 

 yards. That this could not have belonged to the islet would seem pro- 

 bable from a pair only having been observed at intervals of several years, 

 which each time were destroyed, and none other seen on the islet. Le 

 Court and Jesse also have observed that the Mole swims with perfect ease. 

 Of the organs of sense, those of smelling are the most largely developed 

 in the Mole. As Geoffrey St. Hilaire well remarks, " Is there any organ 

 of sense which could supply more efficiently, to an animal living under 



