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THE FIVE-CLAWED ECHIDNAS. 245 
“T 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 pupe 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, Octéographie 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- 
