THE HEDGEHOG 35 



If you watch a bird with a large tail, such as a pigeon or a 

 swallow, when it is flying, you will see that it turns its tail from 

 side to side just as often as it changes the direction of its flight. 

 And if you watch a bat while flying, you will see that it uses its 

 tail in exactly the same way. 



In this country bats render good service to the farmer and fruit- 

 grower, by eating up vast quantities of moths and other insects 

 that prey upon the crops. In some parts of the world, however, 

 they are not always so useful, and in South America there are one 

 or two kinds of bats which may be by no means pleasant neigh- 

 bours. The Vampire bat, for instance, is not content with insects 

 and fruit, but varies this diet at times by sucking blood from the 

 larger animals, and even from man himself. 



INSECT-EATERS 



We next come to the small group of INSECTIVORES, or insect- 

 eating mammals. There are very few animals in this group, in 

 fact its only well-known members are the hedgehogs, the moles, 

 and the shrew-mice. 



THE HEDGEHOG 



Perhaps the oddest little animal we have in Great Britain is the 

 Hedgehog, with its thick coat of sharp spines. It is somewhat like 

 a small porcupine in appearance, although it is not very nearly 

 related to that animal. It can roll itself up into a ball so tightly 

 as to be quite safe from the attacks of almost any enemy except 

 man himself. 



The spines which cover the hedgehog so closely are shaped 

 like bent pins. If you were to strip off the skin from a dead 

 hedgehog, you would find that these bristles were pinned, as it 

 were, through the skin, and that each was kept in its place by a 

 kind of round head. 



