HABITS. 301 



and breccia caves" of New South Wales, further portions had been discovered, 

 inchiding an entire humerus, a large portion of the skull, atlas, a tibia, and 

 frag^nentary evidences of other parts of the same skeleton." The edentulous 

 condition, proportions, and conformation of the jaws, together with other "char- 

 acteristic modifications of this monotrematous genus [Echidna], are repeated 

 on the same magnified scale as in the mutilated arm-bone previously described 

 and figured." The nature of these remains is not further indicated, but it seems 

 probable that they are referable to the Proechidna, as, indeed. Flower and 

 Lydekker (1891, p. 127) point out; they state that "In referring this species to 

 the genus Echidna, that term must be regarded as including Proechidna." The 

 fossil humerus as figured by Owen (1884) is but very little longer than that of 

 an adult New Gumea Proechidna. 



Spur. — Gervais found a spur on but one of his two specmiens, the one by 

 him regarded as a male. It is generally considered absent in the adult female as 

 is true also of the Echidna and the Duckbill. Thus Toldt (1905) found no 

 spur in one of the Vienna proechidnas he examined, while a second had a rudi- 

 mentary one only. In two alcoholic specimens in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, that were males by dissection, the spur was well developed. It is 

 slightly attached by connective tissue at the tarsus, Init I was unable to discover 

 any trace of a gland or duct in connection with it, such as is described for the 

 Duckbill. 



HABITS. 



Practically nothing is known of the habits of the Proechidna in a wild state. 

 According to A. A. Bruijn, by whom the original cranium was sent to Peters and 

 Doria, the specimen was found by a native hunter on Mt. Arfak, at a consider- 

 able altitude. Here the animal was said to be not rare, living in burrows; 

 the natives hunted them by the aid of dogs, and were fond of their flesh. The 

 hairy coat was said to be long and very harsh. Gervais had two spechnens 

 from the Karon Mountains, northern New Guinea, at an altitude of 1,150 meters. 

 The natives called it nokdiak. In British New Guinea, a specimen is recorded 

 by Thomas (1907) from Mt. Victoria at an altitude of 8,000 feet, and is made 

 the type of the race hartoni. Guillemard (1886) writes that his nati\'e hunters 

 at Doreh Bay obtained a specimen for him, and that it was said to Ii\'e in hwv- 

 rows in rocky ground. It is doubtless an inhabitant of rocky places, and there- 

 fore avoids the low country along the coast, but present evidence does not 

 indicate that it is confined to high altitudes. Dr. Thomas Barbour in 1906 



