438 



ORDER INSECTIVORA. INSECT-EATING ANIMALS. 



Fig. 331. TEETH OF AN INSECTIVOROUS 

 ANIMAL. 



" Tray you tread softly, that the Blind Mole may not 

 Hear a foot fall." SIIAKSPEAKE. 



THE teeth of the Insectivora, raised into pointed and conical 

 summits, furnish another example of the adaptation of the 



teeth to the nature of the 

 food on which they are de- 

 signed to act. This order is 

 represented among British 

 animals by the Shrew, the 

 Hedgehog, and the Mole. 



Soricidce. The general 

 appearance of the Shrew 

 (Fig. 332), is well indicated 

 hy its popular name of 



" Shrew Mouse." It frequents the field and the garden, 

 rooting with its long and tapering snout for insects and worms. 

 The Water Shrew is not found in Ireland. 



Erinaceadce. The Common 

 Hedgehog (Erinaceus Europeans) 

 is, as its scientific name imports, 

 widely distributed over Europe. 

 It is unable to defend itself by 

 force, or to seek safety in flight; 

 }^et by its peculiar covering it is 

 " endowed with a safeguard more 

 secure and effectual than the teeth 

 and claws of the Wild Cat, or the fleetness of the Hare." 

 Idle stories of its robbing orchards, and carrying off the apples 

 upon its spines are yet current in Ireland. At the time 

 last heard the tale, the innocent object of the slander was in 

 the house, crunching with much apparent relish, the Commo 

 Banded Snail (Helix nemoralis), in its shell a group of mer 

 children having collected from about the hedgerows a larg 

 plateful of the Snails as a supper for their prickly favourite. 

 Talpidce. The Mole (Talpa vulgaris, Fig. 333) is no 



* The species represented is the Musaraigne of the French authors, and 

 according to Professor Bell, identical with the common Shrew of England 

 (Sorex araneus). 



Fig 1 . 332. SHREW.* 



