Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/96

68 wards, though he continued to eat till the day before he died. The specimen was a male, and apparently adult."—p. 64.

Among the insectivorous quadrupeds we have no additions: they are the hedgehog (Erinaceus europæus), the mole (Talpa europæa), the common shrew mouse (Sorex tetragonurus), the water shrew (S. fodiens), and the oared shrew (S. remifer).

As an illustration of the food occasionally eaten by the hedgehog, Mr. Bell quotes the account related by Mr. Broderip, in the first volume of the 'Zoological Journal,' of Professor Buckland's hedgehog and the snake.

Our author gives a long and very interesting history of the mole, which appears to be an especial favourite with him: the authority principally consulted is a work published in 1803, by a M. Cadet de Vaux, detailing the researches of one Henri le Court, who retired from a lucrative office under the reign of terror, and consoled himself as well as he might for the loss of wealth and state, by studying the habits of the mole; and really the French moles of the era of Robespierre, seem to have been decidedly in advance of the English moles of the era of Victoria, as far as fortification, encampment and mining are concerned, and even in speed, for the speed of a frightened French mole, on the testimony of Geoffroy, was equal to that of a horse at full trot.

Of the bear tribe the badger (Meles taxus) is the only example.

Of the Mustelidæ or weasel tribe, we have the following examples. The otter (Lutra vulgaris), the weasel (Mustela vulgaris), the stoat (M. erminea), the polecat (M. putorius), the marten (M. foina) and the pine marten (M. Martes).