Fam. 8. Talpidae.—This family is confined to the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions, or practically so, being fairly equally
distributed as regards genera; a Mole just gets over the boundary into the Oriental region. The genus Talpa is entirely Old World in range, and includes several species, of which the Common Mole, T. europaea, is the best known. There are forty teeth, one of the molars of the full mammalian dentition not being represented. In the milk dentition there is an additional premolar, not represented by a successor in the permanent dentition. The formula is thus I 3/3 C 1/1 Pm 4/4 M 3/3. There are no external ears, and the eyes are rudimentary; the soft silky fur is familiar to everybody. The sternum has a strong crest, associated with a powerful development of the pectoral muscles, so necessary to a burrowing animal. The animal, it is hardly necessary to state, lives underground in burrows excavated by itself, which have not, it has been stated, the elaborate and, it appears, fanciful shape assigned to them by many writers. At times Moles appear above ground.
Their principal food consists of earthworms, and it may not be out of place to quote Topsell's quaint account of their pursuit of the annelids: "When the wormes are followed by molds (for by digging and heaving they foreknow their owne perdition) they fly to the superficies and very toppe of the earth, the silly beast knowing that the molde, their adversary, dare not followe them into the light, so that their wit in flying their enemy is greater than in turning againe when they are troade upon." It has lately been said[[381]] that Moles store up earthworms for consumption during the winter, biting off their heads to prevent their crawling away.
Scalops, an American genus, is a Mole-like creature of largely aquatic habits, as its webbed hind-feet show; it has a short, naked tail. Apparently, like the Shrews, it has no lower canines.
Condylura, another American genus, is called the Star-nosed Mole on account of a curious radiating structure at the end of the snout.
Myogale, the Desman, is still more aquatic in habit, and connects the Moles with the Shrews, though, as in many of the former, it has lower canines. It has webbed hind-feet and a long tail. One species occurs in the Pyrenees, the other in Russia. A few other genera (Urotrichus, Uropsilus, Scaptonyx, Dymecodon, Scapasius, Perascalops) belong to the same family.
Fam. 9. Soricidae.—The true Shrews have a much wider range than other families of the present order. In the Palaearctic region are found Sorex, Crossopus, Crocidura, Nectogale, Chimarrogale. The first is also Nearctic, and reaches Central America. In the Ethiopian region is the single peculiar genus Myosorex, but Crocidura occurs there also. Blarina and Notiosorex are "Sonoran" in range; Soriculus Oriental. Crocidura, Anurosorex, and Chimarrogale also enter this region. Sorex has teeth tipped with reddish colour, its dental formula being, according to Mr. Woodward's recent researches, I 3/(2 or 3) C 1/0 Pm 3/1 M 3/3 = 32 or 34.
As compared with other Insectivores, therefore, the most remarkable fact found throughout the family is the absence of the lower canines. In addition to this the genus may be known—the family indeed—by the large size of the first pair of incisors. In the above formula it is possible, thinks Mr. Woodward, that there may be errors; he is not certain whether the supposed
upper canine may not be a fourth incisor, and whether the first premolar may not be really the canine. Another peculiar feature about the dentition of Sorex is the suppression of the teeth of the milk dentition, which are functionless, and probably uncalcified. The genus Sorex is terrestrial. The tail is long and covered with hairs. There are two species in this country, S. vulgaris and S. minutus. The former is the Shrew of legend and superstition; and it is no doubt the species that has lent its name to the more untameable members of the softer sex, though it is the males which are especially pugnacious. As to legend, everybody has heard of the shrew ash whose leaves, after a Shrew has been inserted living into a hole cleft in the tree, are a specific for diseases of cattle, caused by the Shrew itself creeping over them.
The Rev. Edward Topsell, author of The Historie of Four-footed Beastes, who defends his veracity by asserting that he does not write "for the rude and vulgar sort, who being utterly ignorant of the operation of learning, do presently condemne al strange things," says of the Shrew that "it is a ravening beast, feigning itself gentle and tame, but, being touched, it biteth deep and poysoneth deadly. It beareth a cruel minde, desiring to hurt anything, neither is there any creature that it loveth, or it loveth him, because it is feared of all." It is probable that all this rustic feeling is due to the powerful effluvium which the Shrew undoubtedly emits.