99 



SKELETONS OF THE MONOTREMES IN THE COL- 

 LECTIONS OF THE ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM AT 

 WASHINGTON. 



By Dr. R. W. Stiufeldt, C.M.Z.S., Washington, D.C. 



Plates XVIII.-XXII. 



[Originally written for the Hobart-Melbourne meeting 

 of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, January, 1921]"^ 



(Read before tlie Royal Society of Tasmania, 8th August, 



192l!) 



Attention was recently invited to the existence in the 

 collections of the Army Medical Museum, of the Surgeon 

 General's Office, at Washington, of the mounted skeletons of 

 certain of the Monotremata; and as these curious mammals 

 are now becoming extremely rare, a brief account of the 

 specimens of them will probably prove of value to the com- 

 parative anatomists of the future, and of more or less 

 interest to those of the present time, d) 



These skeletons consist of one of an Echidna, and two 

 of the Duckbill Platypus or Ornithorhynchus. On the Echidna 

 skeleton the label reads: — ''2496 Comp. Anat. Ser. — Spiny 

 "ant-eater; echidna aculeata or hystrix. From New South 

 **Wales. The jaws are without teeth; roof of mouth and 

 "tongue covered with horny spines." This is apparently 

 an adult specimen, prepared and mounted by the Wards of 

 Rochester, and in perfect condition. One of their labels 

 is pasted on the under side of the stand and bears the 

 number 3760 and the statement that the animal was obtained 

 in New South Wales. 



The better specimen of the two Duckbills was also pre- 

 pared by the Wards; it is on a large, solid black-walnut 

 stand without trimmings, and has their unnumbered label 



*Owing to the Shipping Strike, the Meeting of the A.A.A.S., which 

 was to have been held in Hobart in January, had to be held in Melbourne. 

 It was found impossible to bring out the usual Report of the A.A.A.S. 

 Meciting and to print all papei-s. Arrangements were, therefore, made for 

 certain papers to be read before the Society and printed in the Papers 

 and Proceedings for 1921. 



(1) SHUFELDT, R. W.— "The Section of Comparative Anatomy of the 

 "Army Medical Museum," Medical Review of Reviews, New York, 

 Feb., 1919, Vol. XXV., No. 2, pp. 85-90, 4 figs. Presents a nearly 

 complete list of the vertebrate skeletons in the Section at the time the 

 article appeared. 



H 



