322 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
across the top, in a few hours had wrenched off two of the spars 
and made its escape. After trying various sorts of boxes, I 
succeeded in finding a satisfactory means of keeping the animal, 
viz., a strong canvas bag. In this the Echidna is powerless, as he 
can get no foothold, and even though the bag be closed as tight as 
possible there is apparently enough air admitted to keep the 
animal alive. 
When an adult Echidna is captured and placed in confinement, - 
he will most probably refuse all food or drink for some days. 
Usually a week will elapse before he will condescend to take 
even water. So great is their power of endurance that they 
will keep in fairly good condition without food or drink for 
five or six weeks. When once the captive can be induced to 
take water, it can be comparatively easily tamed. Milk it 
becomes very fond of, and if finely minced raw meat be mixed 
with the milk, a diet can be provided which is apparently well 
relished, and on which the animal thrives. I have found it most 
suitable to give a good meal only once in the two days. A large 
adult will easily take an ordinary tea-cupful of milk and mince- 
meat, 
If an Echidna be placed on an ant’s nest it at once sets to work. 
Seated on a tripod, formed of the two hind legs well advanced 
and the little stumpy tail, it uses its front feet and its snout for 
opening up the various passages. The long sharp snout is thrust 
down one of the passages, and from it the long vermiform tongue 
sweeps out and in all the neighbouring passages, clearing them in 
a few seconds of all ants and eggs. The tongue can be put out 
about four inches, and has a curious power of following the exact 
eurves and twists of the passages. When the snout is deeply 
pushed into a passage, the point of the tongue will be seen 
whipping out and in other passages two or three inches away, 
When the ants have been cleared out of all the passages, the long 
front claws are pushed in by the side of the snout, and the passage 
forcibly opened up, allowing the snout to go an inch or so deeper. 
The pupe and larve seem to be especially relished, and seem 
always to be preferred to the ants themselves. 
In the Taralga district the Echidna seems to breed about 
September and October—considerably later than in the warmer 
parts of Australia, where July is apparently the usual season. 
a 
