26 
MAMMALIAN GALLERY. 
[Case 27.] of species, all strikingly alike externally, but differing among them- 
selves in the structure of their skulls and teeth. They are long- 
nosed, short-tailed animals, with rudimentary eyes, soft velvety 
fur, of such a structure as to lie equally well in either direction, 
thus enabling the Mole to move freely in its burrows either back- 
wards or forwards, and with short, broadened, spade-like fore feet, 
the toes being strong and all of nearly the same length (see 
fig. 10, A). With these highly efficient instruments the Mole is 
able to force the earth aside and throw it backwards while it is 
burrowing in the ground. 
The Shrews {Soricid(je) form a family containing a very large 
number of mouse-like animals, differing from each other mainly by 
slight variations in their teeth, but all presenting very much the 
same external appearance. The great majority are terrestrial in their 
habits (as, for example, the English Common and Pygmy Shrews), 
burrowing on or close to the surface of the ground, and living on 
small beetles, worms, or any other animal food they can obtain. 
The large Indian Shrews, provided with scent-glands, by which a 
substance of a most penetrating odour is secreted. Others live 
in ponds and streams, feeding on water-beetles and crustaceans, 
for which they swim and dive with great facility. To this group 
belongs our common Water-Shrew (^Crossopus fodiens), a beautiful 
velvet-coated animal with a long tail, and with its feet, like those of 
the Myogales, provided with lateral swimming-bristles. 
The family of Tanrecs [Centetidce] is confined to Madagascar, 
and consists of about half a dozen species — the spiny Tanrecs, 
or Ground-Hogs [Centetes) (among the largest of the Order), 
and the striped Tanrecs [Hemicentetes). 
To these is closely allied the rare Potamogale velox, a native 
of West Africa. In its habits it resembles the Otters, living almost 
entirely in the water, and feeding on small fishes, crustaceans, and 
water-beetles. 
The last family is that of the Golden jMoles [Chrijsochlorida) , 
natives of South Africa, which are very like our European IMoles in 
their general shape, but are distinguished, among other points, by 
the entirely different form of their anterior digging limbs, which 
are narrow, and each provided with an enormous central claw, the 
outer toes being quite small (see fig. 10, B). There are five species 
