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 
in 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, 
and Africa. 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- 
