THE DUCK-MOLES. 



597 



propagation. "The first Echidna which I received," 

 says lie, "I put under a box in my study; but that 

 treatment did not seem to please it at all. It persist- 

 ently and continuously endeavored to escape from its 

 prison, and where there was enough space between 

 the floor and the edge of the box, it constantly put 

 out its long tongue in an exploring way. Finally it 

 succeeded, during the night, in lifting the heavy box 

 and liberating itself. For a long time I looked 

 for it in vain. At last, to my great surprise, I found 

 it in another box about sixteen inches high, which 

 was open above and half filled with pieces of gold 

 quartz the size of a Man's fist, and wrapped in paper; 

 this seemed to impress it as a more fitting sleeping 

 place than the level surface of the ground. Keep- 

 ing this experience of the climbing ability of the 

 animals in mind, I put two other Porcupine Ant- 

 eaters in a barrel about three feet high and twenty 

 inches wide, and placed it in the spacious basement 

 of the museum building in Adelaide. An escape 

 from this prison, having the usual shape of barrels, 

 seemed impossible. Yet one of the animals suc- 

 ceeded in escaping. After days of 

 search I found it, again in the barrel 

 with its companion. It may have 

 heard the latter, and worked its way 

 up to the edge of the barrel between 

 that receptacle and the wall and then 

 dropped down into it. As I intended 

 dissecting the animals, and therefore 

 wished to free them from all interfer- 

 ing fat, I starved them, and found 

 that they could fast at least a month 

 without any visible impairment of 

 their health. I found the intestinal 

 tract of one of them, killed after a 

 six weeks' fast, filled exclusively with 

 sand, to which the animal had access. 

 This was a hint in regard to the prep- 

 aration of food for these animals 

 when in confinement. If it be 

 given a diet of a fine grained, mixed 

 food, consisting of equal parts of 

 powdered dry meat, scraped yolk of 

 ^"< finely ground hemp seed, crumbs 

 of crackers, grated carrots and pure 

 sand, an Echidna may, in my opinion, 

 thrive for a long time, and possibly 

 propagate its species. An addition 

 of Ants, grubs and Meal-worms will make the food 

 still more wholesome. The animal must be treated 

 exactly as are insectivorous birds. The majority of 

 Echidnidae could fast through the time occupied 

 by the journey from Australia to Europe, the fast 

 steamers having shortened the duration of the trip." 



THE WOOLLY ECHIDNA. 



The seqond genus, with its one species, of the 

 Echidnidae is constituted by a recently discovered 

 animal of New Guinea, which we will call Woolly 

 Echidna (Proechidna bruijnii), in contradistinction 

 to the Porcupine Ant-eater. The genus can not be 

 sharply differentiated from the preceding and is 

 principally distinguished from it by the number of 

 toes, there being only three on each foot. The 

 beak-, which is curved downward, is nearly double 

 as long as the remainder of the head. The animal 

 is about twenty inches long and is covered on head, 

 body and limbs by a dense, coarse dark brown or 

 black woolly fur, with which a few bristles are mixed 

 and scattering spines are hidden in the hair. 



The Woolly Echidna is so far known to exist 

 only in the northwest portion of New Guinea; noth- 

 ing has been written of its mode of life. 



£bc Emcfe^moles. 



SECOND FAMILY: Ornithorhynchidje. 



The Duck-mole {Ormthorhynchus anatinus or para- 

 doxus) is the only known member of the second 

 family of this order. We are indebted to Dr. George 

 Bennett for the first good description of this really 

 striking animal, which continued to be an object of 

 wonder to naturalists and the public at large long 

 after its discovery. Its form and habits were so 

 queer, that Bennett traveled to Australia for the sole 

 purpose of observing the animal. Up to that time 

 only indefinite information had reached us. We 

 simply knew that the Duck-mole lived in the water 

 and was persistently hunted by the natives, for it 

 yielded a savory flesh and laid eggs. The assertion 



THE PORCUPINE ANT-EATER.— 



ny phys 



bristly fur beset 

 aculeata.) 



•Belonging to the 

 cal peculiarities. 



last and strangest order of mam- 

 It lias a bird-like head and beak; a 



i spines, a rudimentary tail, and many other odd characteristics. (Echidna 



of the latter fact was considered untrue until Cald- 

 well reported his discovery of its eggs in 1884. 



Description of The Duck-mole is somewhat larger 

 the Duck- than the Echidna, being about two 

 mole. f ee t j n length, six inches of which 



are included in the tail. The males are considerably 

 larger than the females. The flattened body shows 

 a certain similitude to that of a Beaver or an Otter. 

 The legs are very small, all four feet being five-toed 

 and webbed. In the fore feet, which possess greater 

 muscular power than the hind pair and serve for 

 swimming as well as for digging, the webs extend 

 slightly beyond the claws, are very flexible and 

 elastic and are retracted from the claws when the 

 animal is engaged in scratching or burrowing in the 

 earth. All the toes are very strong, blunt and ex- 

 cellently adapted for digging. The two middle 

 digits are the longest. The short hinder paws are 

 directed backward and resemble those of a Seal, and 

 are most effective when exerted in a backward and 

 outward direction. The first toe on each hind foot 

 is verv short; the nails are all curved backward and 



