Animal Helpers 



in its lair and to crush its head. What ser- 

 vice it does in localities infested by this 

 dangerous brood ! And yet man persecutes 

 the hedgehog and treats him as a disgusting 

 animal, only fit to excite the rage of dogs 

 that cannot bite his prickly back. Children 

 must not imitate this bad example. They 

 must respect the hedgehog which delivers us 

 from the grub and the viper. 



What does the mole eat ? The most satis- 

 factory method of determining the food of an 

 animal is to examine the contents of its 

 stomach. We will open the stomach of the 

 mole and see what it holds ; sometimes red 

 fragments of the common worm, sometimes 

 a mass of beetles, that can be recognised 

 by the tough remains unaffected by digestion, 

 the scraps of claws and wing-cases ; more 

 often a mixture of larvae and grubs, especially 

 those of the cockchafer, known by distinctive 

 marks, such as the mandibles and the hard 

 covering of the head. We find something 

 of all dwellers underground — wood-lice and 

 centipedes, insects and worms, chrysalids of 

 twilight moths, and subterranean caterpillars, 

 but the most careful search will not detect 

 the least morsel of vegetable matter. 



So the mole is exclusively carnivorous. 



261 



