346 
INSECTIVORES. 
in others the number is reduced to thirty-eight, owing to the loss of the first pair 
of premolars in each jaw. The molar teeth have very tall crowns. The golden 
moles derive both their popular and scientific names from the brilliant metallic 
lustre of the fur, which shows various tints of green, violet, or golden bronze; 
the brilliancy of these metallic hues being much intensified when the skin is 
immersed in spirit. 
The runs are made so near the surface of the ground that the 
Habits. . . 0 
earth is raised above the tunnel, which can accordingly be followed 
with ease in all directions. When one of the moles is seen to be at work, owing to 
the movements of the soil, it can readily be thrown up on to the surface by the aid 
of a stick or spade. The food of the golden moles consists mainly of earth-worms. 
The nearest relatives of the golden moles appear to be the tenrecs, while the 
ordinary moles are closely allied to the shrews; and it is thus interesting to find 
two widely different groups of animals modified for a similar kind of subterranean 
life. This modification has, however, by no means followed the same lines in the 
two groups, for not only do the skeletons of the golden and true moles differ con¬ 
siderably from one another, but there is a still more marked difference in the form 
and structure of the fore-foot. Thus, whereas the fore-foot of the true mole has 
assumed the well-known hand-like form, with an additional sickle-like bone near 
the thumb, that of the golden mole, as we have just seen, is of a totally different 
type, the power of digging being mainly due to the enormous horny claws of its 
two middle fingers. 
