246 LLOYD’S NATURAL HISTORY. 
dividual of the typical species of this genus has been found 
with five anterior and four posterior fully developed claws, 
it will be apparent that the main ground for referring these 
Spiny Ant-eaters to a genus apart from LZchidna is the much 
greater proportionate length of the beak, although there is also 
a difference in the number of the vertebree. At best, how- 
ever, these differences are but trivial, and, were it not for the 
inconvenience of perpetually changing accepted systems of 
classification, the writer considers that it would be preferable 
to include the whole of the members of the family in a single 
genus. 
The three-clawed Echidnas are restricted to New Guinea. 
I. BRUIJN’S ECHIDNA. PROECHIDNA BRUIJNI. 
Tachyglossus bruijnit, Peters and Doria, Ann. Mus., Genova, 
vol. 1x., p. 183 :(1976). 
Acanthoglossus bruijnit, Gervais, Comptes Rendus, 1877, p. 
O37: 
Proechidna bruijnit, Gervais, Ostéographie Monotrem. p. 43 
(877); Thomas, Cat. Marsup.,* Brits. Mus. pages 
(1888). 
Proechidna villosissima, Dubois, Bull. Mus., Belg., vol. iii., p. 
r10 (1884). 
Echidna bruijnit, Flower, Cat. Osteol. Mus., R. Coll. Surgeons, 
Bivdi:, p. 753 (1884); 
Characters——About equal in size to the largest specimens of 
the Tasmanian race of Echidna aculeata. Fur thick, coarse, 
and woolly, sparsely intermingled with flattened bristles ; in 
colour, the fur uniform dark brown or black, sometimes 
becoming nearly white on the head. Spines on back much 
shorter, as well as fewer than in Zchidna ; their colour being 
generally entirely white, although their bases may, in some 
