INSECTIVOEA. 473 



Order INSECTIVOEA (INSECTIVOROUS MAMMALS). 



All the Insectivora are small mammals, very like rodents in 

 appearance, but have not the rodent incisors, and have, on the 

 other hand, distinct clavicles (fig. 223 b, d), which are absent 

 in the gnawing mammals. The teeth are very variable : the 

 molars are always serrated with small pointed cusps, perfectly 

 adapted for crushing their insect food ; there are never less 

 than two pairs of lower incisors. Insectivora have five toes, 

 armed with claws, to each foot. They are plantigrade. The 

 snout is slender and sensitive, being used as an organ of touch. 

 Most of this order are small nocturnal mammals, rnany being 

 subterranean in habit. The placenta is deciduate and discoidal. 

 They are all more or less beneficial, feeding upon ground- 

 insects, worms, and snails. A few feed upon small birds and 

 mammals and vegetation. In most the eyes are badly de- 

 veloped, in some they are scarcely of any use. 



The families of economic importance to us are the Moles 

 (Talpidm), the Shrew - Mice (Soncidce), and the Hedgehogs 

 (Erinaceidce). 



Family TALPiDiK. 



Body covered with a thick soft fur ; feet adajsted for digging 

 in the earth, with large claws ; eyes, which are present deep' 

 in the fur, more or less useful for purposes of vision — they 

 can distinguish the light from darkness, if nothing else ; the 

 fore-legs are short, broad, and spade-like, and the palms are 

 turned backwards. The British species is Talpa europcea, 

 which has a beautiful shiny black fur. The mole may be 

 found nearly everywhere, unless the soil is very heavy ; its 

 presence may be detected by the heaps of earth it throws up 

 out of its tunnels in the ground. Light soils are preferred by 

 it, especially where there is plenty of humus, but it may be 

 found even along chalk downs. "We know of one place where 



