MAMMALS. 33 



May, June, or July. Tne mole never gnaws plants. It 

 does service, sometimes very great, by eating many 

 wireworms, grubs, snail embryos, earth caterpillars, 

 mole-crickets, and other earth-inhabiting insects, as 

 well as their larvae. It also willingly eats earthworms, 

 but whether this does good is not definitely known. 

 But under certain conditions it may also do harm, 

 rooting up plants as it makes its heaps. G-rass and 

 grain suffer little, if at all, by this ; other plants more ; 

 while young flax-plants perish if their roots are 

 loosened. Mole-hills in hayfields and cornfields are a 

 nuisance at harvest time. Moles are not to be endured 

 in the neighbourhood of dams, since their borings may 

 become the immediate cause of flooding. Trapping 

 may usefully be resorted to in cases where moles are 

 harmful. 



The Hedgehog, or Hedgepig (Erinaceus europceus). 

 When danger threatens it rolls itself into a ball 

 covered all over with prickles, and is in this way 

 secured from the attacks of most enemies. The hedge- 

 hog goes on the hunt in the evening ; while during the 

 day it sleeps in its hiding-place, situated in such 

 places as the side of a ditch, hedges, or under heaps 

 of brushwood. It preys more particularly on field- 

 voles, sometimes also on eggs and small birds (chickens 

 occasionally), lizards, grass-snakes, adders (by the 

 bites of which it is unaffected), frogs, cockchafers and 

 their larvae, field-snails, earthworms, and similar small 

 deer; now and then on fallen fruit and juicy plant- 

 roots. 



Order: Cheiroptera (Bats). 



All Bats, except a few tropical genera, feed on 

 insects, and possess teeth like those of the preceding 

 order of Mammals (p. 30). The leading feature is the 

 characteristic modification of the fore limbs into a 

 flying apparatus. The bones of the forearm (Fig. 18, 



