THE TRUE ECHIDNA 



239 



ground — improvised nurseries excavated by the 

 mother when she goes out to seek her own food. 



Echidnas being at certain seasons of the year very 

 fat, are in native eyes most desirable additions to the 

 menu of the bush, being said to taste Hke sucking 

 pig. The blacks hunt them by means of tame 

 dingoes (see illustration) or with mongrel half breeds 

 between the dingo and domestic dog. The half breeds 

 are but curs, quarrelsome and annoying, though sharp 

 enough at following an echidna track through the 

 maze of acacia scrub. The dingo proper is almost 

 a handsome animal, exhibiting much individual 

 variation in colour, the tones ranging from red to 

 black. The Australians take the dingo puppies 

 from their holes (in hollow trees) and rear them in 

 their huts. Naturally the dingo is as wild as a wolf, 

 and as savage and bloodthirsty ; Australian stock- 

 raisers have suffered from it losses almost, if not 

 quite, as great as those which the Tasmanians have 

 experienced from the thylacine. However, being 

 reared up from puppyhood by their black masters, 

 the young dingoes grow up tame, though never 

 completely domesticated. 



The " porcupine anteater " was first described in 

 1792 by Dr. Shaw in the "Naturalists' Miscellany," 

 though he confused the echidna with the American 

 anteaters, styling it the MymnecopJiaga aculeata; the 

 type specimen is no longer in existence. The 

 French surgeon-naturalists, M.M. Quoy and Gaimard, 



