INSECTIVORA; 
OR, INSECT-EATING ANIMALS. 
MONGr the animals which are comprised in the Insect-eating group, we find the 
Mole, the various Shrews, and the Hedgehog, as examples of the Talpidle, or 
the family of the Moles. 
As the food of these creatures is almost exclusively composed of insects, 
snail, worms, and similar animals, it is necessary that their teeth should be 
formed in a manner suitable to seizing and retaining their prey. Accordingly, 
on opening the mouth of a mole, a shrew, or a hedgehog, we find that none of the 
teeth are provided with flattened surfaces for the purpose of grinding the food, but that even 
the molar teeth are covered with sharp points, which are admirably suited for piercing and 
retaining their active prey, or for tearing 
it to pieces when it has been killed. All 
the insectivorous animals are plantigrade 
in their walk. 
Some of these creatures, such as the 
shrew, present so close an external resem- 
blance to the common mice, that they are 
popularly supposed to belong to the same 
class, and are called by the same general 
name. Many species live beneath the sur- 
face of the earth, and seek in that dark 
hunting-ground the prey which cannot be 
enticed to the surface in sufficient numbers 
to supply adequate nourishment for the 
ever hungry worm-devourers. 
Of all the insect-eating animals there 
is none which is better known by name 
than the common Mole, and very few 
which are less known by their true char- 
acter. 
On inspecting a living Mole that has 
been captured on the surface of the earth, 
and comparing it with the multitudinous 
creatures that find their subsistence on the 
earth’s surface, rejoicing in the full light 
of day, and free to wander as they please, 
we cannot but feel some emotions of surprise at the sight of a creature which is naturally 
debarred from all these sources of gratification, and which passes its life in darkness below 
the surface of the ground. 
Yet this pity, natural though it be, will be entirely thrown away, for there is scarcely 
any creature that lives which is better fitted for enjoyment, or which is urged by more fiery 
passions. Dull and harmless as it may appear to be, it is in reality one of the most ferocious 
animals in existence, and will engage in the fiercest combats upon very slight provocation. 
MOLE.— Talpa europaea. 
