. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. OR, INSECT-EATIN G ANIMALS. MONO the animals which are comprised in the Insect-eating group, we find the Mole, the various Shrews, and the Hedgehog, as examples of the Talpid^e, 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,
. Animate creation : popular edition of "Our living world" : a natural history. Zoology; Zoology. OR, INSECT-EATIN G ANIMALS. MONO the animals which are comprised in the Insect-eating group, we find the Mole, the various Shrews, and the Hedgehog, as examples of the Talpid^e, 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 tin- surface1 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 nil these sources of gratification, and which passes its life in darkness below the surf
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbr, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectzoology
