66 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



CHAPTER VII. 



INSECT-EATING, RODENT, TOOTHLESS, AND MARSUPIAL 

 QUADRUPEDS. 



106. WE now come to the second order of Quadru- 

 peds, the Insectivora, or insect-eating Quadrupeds. Al- 

 though, as we saw in Chapter III., many of the Bat and 

 Monkey tribes live chiefly on insects, it is in this order 

 that we find the most complete adaptation to this kind 

 of food. The teeth of the Insectivora are not cutting 

 and tearing, as are those of the Carnivora, but they have 

 rounded points for the purpose of crushing the hard cov- 

 erings of insects. Most of them live chiefly under ground, 

 as the Mole ; and those which inhabit cold countries are 

 hi a state of torpor through the winter. Their vocation 

 seems to be to keep within bounds the worm and insect 

 tribes that are found in the soil, which would otherwise 

 be exceedingly destructive to the vegetables on which 

 man so much depends for food. 



107. Of this order there are four families: 1. Moles, 

 which pass their whole lives in burrows. 2. Shrews, a 

 sort of carnivorous mice, which are very common through- 

 out Europe, but of which only a few species are found 

 in America. 3. The Hedgehogs, found in Europe, Asia, 



4. The Banxrings, which inhabit the larger 

 islands of the Eastern 

 Archipelago. 



108. The common 

 European Mole, Fig. 

 48, lives in the same 

 manner as the Mole 

 of this country, al- 

 Fig. 48. Mole. though it is a differ- 



and Africa. 



