404 ZOOLOGY. 



with its bird-like snout, a broad and depressed bill, covered by naked skin. 

 The jaws are furnished on each side and towards the front with a long 

 narrow, homy appendage, and towards the hinder part with a broad, nearly 

 ovate crushing tooth, of the same material. The tongue is short, and pro- 

 vided in part with horny papillae. The eye is small. The body depressed, 

 nearly oval, and clothed with a dense fur. The legs are short, and the feet 

 organized for swimming. Each foot is provided with five well developed 

 toes, between which a membrane extends considerably beyond the toes in 

 the forefoot, the claws of which are large, solid, and depressed, and fitted 

 for burrowing. The tail is rather short, broad, and depressed. The male 

 is provided with a spur to the hind foot. The name of Ornithorhynchus 

 has reference to the peculiar structure of the bill. A single species is well 

 determined, namely, O. anatinus [pi. 112, Jig. 1), of about eighteen inches 

 in length, the general color dusky brown, on the upper part of the body 

 rather dark, on the under paler. It inhabits New South Wales and Van 

 Diemen's Land, where it is called water mole by the colonists, on account 

 of its aquatic habits and some slight resemblance which it bears to the 

 common mole of Europe. It is very difficult to watch them in their native 

 element, as they remain but a short time on the surface of the water, 

 diving with an extraordinary rapidity at the approach of the slightest 

 danger. The other species described in systematic works are established 

 upon insufficient data, some of them being undoubtedly immature indi- 

 viduals. 



Fam. 2. EcHiDNiDiE, containing likewise but one genus, Echidna, or 

 porcupine ant-eater, is known by its naked, elongated, slender, and attenu- 

 ated snout, and the small opening of the mouth. The tongue is protractile, 

 slender, cylindrical, and very long ; the palate is furnished with horny 

 papillae ; the teeth are completely wanting. The body is furnished above 

 with spines and hairs intermixed. The legs are short and powerful ; the 

 fore and hind feet each with five well developed toes, having large nails ; 

 fore feet fitted for burrowing ; the hind feet in the male furnished with a 

 spur of a horny substance. The tail is very short. The animals of this 

 genus are found in Australia exclusively. Two species only are enume- 

 rated, and one will perhaps prove to be a local variety. At a cursory 

 glance they resemble the hedgehog, were it not for their long and slender 

 snout. E. aculeata (pi. 112, Jig. 2) is a small animal, about one foot in 

 length, of a brownish black color. It was originally found at New South 

 Wales, and more recently on the west coast, in Swan river district. E. 

 setosa is from Van Diemen's Land, from fourteen to seventeen inches in 

 length. 



Both species of Echidna are terrestrial and fossorial ; they feed almost 

 exclusively on ants, and play in their zoological district the same part in 

 the economy of nature which is assigned to the pangolins in Asia and 

 Africa, and to the ant-eaters of South America. 



608 



