﻿THE FIVE-CLAWED ECHIDNAS. 245 



" I have usually observed the animal sleeping rolled up like 

 a ball; when cleaning itself, it uses only the hind claws, placing 

 itself in various positions, so as to be enabled to reach the part 

 of the body to be operated on. I never heard a sound of any 

 kind uttered by this animal." 



Captive Echidnas have been fed at first upon the pup^e of 

 ants and milk, but have subsequently been accustomed to eat 

 chopped egg and meat. In drinking, which they do frequently 

 and largely, the fluid is licked or lapped up by a rapid protru- 

 sion and retraction of the worm-like tongue. 



Like all burrowing animals, the Echidna has the humerus, or 

 upper bone of the arm of great width, and furnished with a 

 number of strong ridges and crests necessary for the attach- 

 ment of the powerful muscles required to move the claws in 

 the work of excavating the ground. Although there is a cer- 

 tain family likeness in that bone among all such burrowing Mam- 

 mals, yet the humerus of the Echidna is markedly different from 

 that of all other members of the class (save in a certain degree, 

 that of the Duck-bill) ; and it is remarkable that this curious 

 type of humerus is most nearly approached by the aforesaid 

 extinct Anomodont reptiles, which there is good reason to 

 believe are nearly allied to the ancestors of the Monotremes. 



THE THREE-CLAWED ECHIDNAS. GENUS PROECHIDNA. 

 Proechidna^ Gervais, Octeographie Monotrem., p. 43, 1877. 



Usually only three claws on both fore and hind feet, but the 

 first and fifth toes represented by several joints, and in 

 some cases with fully developed claws. In the hind foot the 

 claws decrease regularly in length from the second to the 

 fourth toe. Beak much elongated and curving down, its 

 length being nearly equal to twice that of the rest of the 

 head. 



Owing to the circumstance that an apparently abnormal in- 



