ORDER INSECTIVORA.
CHAPTER I.
COLUGOS—BANGSRINGS—JUMPING SHREWS—HEDGEHOGS—TANRECS—RIVER SHREWS.
Functions of the Insect-eaters in the Order of Nature—Their Leading Peculiarities—Classification—[COLUGOS]—Various Opinions regarding their Place—[COLUGO, OR FLYING LEMUR]—The Patagium—Parachute-like Membrane—Dentition—Offspring—Diet—[BANGSRINGS]—[TANA]—[FERRUGINOUS BANGSRING]—[HORSFIELD’S BANGSRING]—[LOW’S PTILOCERQUE]—[SHORT-TAILED BANGSRING]—[JUMPING SHREWS]—[ELEPHANT SHREW]—[ALGERIAN JUMPING SHREW]—[PETRODROME]—[RHYNCHOCYON]—[HEDGEHOG]—Characteristics—Distribution—Diet—Attacks Snakes and Vipers—Taste for Eggs and Game—Its “Spiny Skin”—“Rolled up”—Enemies—Female and Young—[LONG-EARED HEDGEHOG]—[COLLARED HEDGEHOG]—[BULAU]—[TANRECS]—[TANREC]—[TENDRAC]—[TELFAIR’S TENDRAC]—[RICE TENDRAC]—[EARED EARTH SHREW]—[AGOUTA]—[ALMIQUI]—[WEST AFRICAN RIVER SHREW]
IN the grand economy of nature small things play sometimes very considerable parts; and the innumerable hosts of insects, making up by their numbers for their individual insignificance, are of very great importance in a great variety of fashions. One of their most striking functions is undoubtedly the checking of vegetable growth. They attack plants in all parts—in the roots, the stem, the branches, the leaves, and the flowers and fruit—in this way, while merely obeying their own appetites, imposing a constant check upon the increase of vegetation; and being for the most part specially confined to particular plants or groups of plants, they assist materially in preserving the balance of power in the vegetable world. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that there is the same tendency in insects, as in any other group of organisms, to inordinate increase. The checkers thus need a check in their turn, and the number of other creatures whose business it seems to be to keep down the undue multiplication of insects is exceedingly great.
We have seen that among the Mammalia the Bats for the most part have this duty imposed upon them. They attack the winged armies of perfect insects in the air, and must cut off an enormous number of potential parents of plant-eating larvæ. But there are a great many insects which seldom or never rise into the air, and the larvæ of those which are aerial in their perfect state are of necessity confined to the ground or the vegetation growing on it; these are not without their Mammalian enemies. Many Mammals of the Carnivorous and Marsupial orders feed wholly or partially upon insects; but there is one order most of the species of which are exclusively, or almost exclusively, confined to a diet of terrestrial insects, worms and “such small deer,” and which has consequently received the name of Insectivora, or “the insect-eaters.” On trees, on the ground, and even beneath its surface, and in the water, these animals chase insects and their larvæ; and if they diversify their diet with worms and other invertebrates, or by attacking and devouring frogs, fishes, and small birds and Mammalia, or even in some cases feed chiefly upon such articles, or on fruit, the predominating taste for insects among the members of the order may justify the name.
SKELETON OF SHREW.
The Insectivora are in many respects related to the Bats, and in some cases show a sort of affinity to the lower Quadrumana. In appearance many of them show analogy to different families of Rodents, or gnawing Mammals, the Shrews especially exceedingly mouse-like in their aspect; but, as might be expected from the difference in the habits, and especially in the diet of the animals, the simple inspection of the teeth is always sufficient to distinguish the members of these two orders.
DENTITION OF HEDGEHOG.