﻿THE FIVE-CLAWED ECHIDNAS. 24 1 



bills, being exclusively terrestrial, although fossorial, and sub- 

 sisting solely on ants, which are licked up by the long extensile 

 tongue, after the manner of the Banded Marsupial Anteater. 

 The total loss of the teeth in the Echidna?, in which not even 

 rudiments of these organs have hitherto been detected, sug- 

 gests that they have been Ant-eaters for a longer period of time 

 than has the Marsupial Ant-eater. As regards their breeding 

 habits, the Echidnas differ from the Duck-bills in that the 

 females carry their eggs — generally two m number — in the 

 pouch, where they ftre hatched out by the heat of the body. 



THE FIVE-CLAWED ECHIDNAS. GENUS ECHIDNA. 

 Echidna^ Cuvier, Tabl. Element., p, 143 (1798). 



Form stout and depressed ; limbs with five toes, all furnished 

 with claws, those of the fore feet being broad, slightly curved, 

 and directed forwards, while on the hind feet they are more 

 slender, and curved outwards, the second, or second and third, 

 being elongated and considerably exceeding the fourth and 

 fifth in length, while on the first toe, or hallux, the claw is 

 short, blunt, and rounded. Beak about equal in length to the 

 rest of the remainder of the head, and either straight or 

 slightly curved upwards. Tongue tapering at the tip, with its 

 spines restricted to its basal portion. 



I. COMMON ECHIDNA. ECHIDNA ACULEATA. 



Myrmecophaga acideata^ Shaw, Natur. Miscell., vol. iii., pi. cix. 



(1792). 

 Or7iithorhynchiis hystrix, Home, Phil. Trans., 1802, p. 348. 

 Echidna hystrix^ Geoff., Cat. Mus., p. 224 (1823). 

 Tachyglossiis acukatus, Illiger, Prodromus Syst. Mamm., p. 114 



(1811). 

 Echidna aculeata^ Garnot, N. Bull, Soc. Philom., 1825, p. 45 



(1825); Thomas, Cat. Marsup. and Monotr. Brit. Mus., 



p. 37 7(i8S8). 



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