938 



ROBERT COLLETT, 



reported to be from South Australia, preserved in the Christiania 

 University Museum. The mounted specimen, a female, distinguished 

 by its comparatively rieh clothing of hair, which was visible every- 

 where between the spines, as well as by its very long claw on the 

 'd'^ bind toe, (which was about as long as the 2"'^), I regarded as a 

 typical specimen of E. aculeata. As all the new specimens from N. 

 Queensland, on the contrary, were characterised by their entire want 

 of hairs visible between the spines, and by the comparatively very short 

 claw on the 3"^ bind toe, I considered them as forming an inter- 

 mediate link between the S. Austrahan E. aculeata, and E. lawesi 

 (Rams.) 1877, from New Guinea; and in 1884, I therefore described 

 these individuals as belonging to a new species, under the name of 

 E. acanthion, in : Forh. Vid. Selsk. Christiania, 1884, No. 13 ; in the 

 following year I furnished a more detailed account of it, accompanied 

 by a coloured plate, in: Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1885, p. 150. 



Besides the above mentioned external characters, I thought also 

 that in the skeleton of the presumed new species I found decided 

 differences from what I considered as the S. Australian type. When 

 compared with an equally large and fully developed skeleton of the 

 Said S. Australian specimen, that of E. acanthion was decidedly more 

 slender, and even yet not completely ossified; all the vertebrae were 

 narrower and weaker, the snout more distinctly turned upwards, and 

 the brain case narrower towards the parietalia. 



For further details I refer to the fuller description and figure 

 of E. acanthion in the last mentioned publication. 



Measurements. 



In a paper in: Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1885, (p. 329) „Notes on 

 the Characters of the different Races of Echidna'\ Mr. Oldfield Tho- 

 mas, by/the aid of great materials coUected from the different mu- 

 seums in Europe, together with the collection in the British Museum, 

 has been enablcd to declare that the South Australian E. aculeata 



