2'J3 



CHAPTER XLI. 



MOXOTREMES OllXITIIOKHYNCHUS ECHIDNA. 



For sucli a very limited family — consisting of only three species, and these nowaj's remarkable 

 for the nmnber of their individuals, but the reverse — and restricted to a small corner of a distant 

 land, the ]\Ionotremes have made a great noise in the world. Tliey have given rise to more 

 s^Jecidation, and it is only fair to say, have throwTi more light upon the past history of species, than 

 any other animal of the same number of species or individuals." 



The three species known, are — two sjjecics of Echidna, and the Oknithorhynchus AN.VTiNUiS or 

 PARADOXUS, or Duck-billed Platypus (Platvpus anatinus having been the first name given to it, 

 although the generic name has .since been disused, in consequence of its having been previously 

 aj)plicd to a genus of insects.) 



Echidna. (Map 98.) Putting out of \dew the tendency to Marsupial organization, the Echidna has 

 affinity with the true Edentata. Like the Fodientia of that Order, it burrows rapidly. Messrs. 

 Quoy and Gaimard having placed a specimen in a large case full of earth containing plants, it 

 worked its way to the bottom in less than two minutes. Like the Ant-eaters, its food consists of 

 ants, and these are captured in the same way that they procure their prey, — by the tongue, which 

 in both instances is very protractile, very long, nearly cylindrical, slender and flexible, and is kept 

 constantly lubricated with a viscous secretion to which the ants adhere. It, as well as the Orni- 

 thorhynchus, is wholly without teeth of the ordinary consistency, but the Duck-bill has two horny 

 teeth in the jaw behind the biU, and the Echidna has horny papillaj on the palate. It bears spines 

 or quills, more or less mixed with fur, on its back, like the hedgehog or porciqnne. 



The two species of Echidna are very close to each other, and are merely distinguished bj- the 

 comparative length and quantities of their fur and spines, the one (E. hystrix) having long spines, 

 and short hair, the other (E. setosls) short spines and long haLr, the spines being almost concealed 

 by the fiu'. The former is fomid on the Continent and in one of the islands in Bass's Straits, the 

 latter only in Van Dieman's Land. It is in all other resf)ects so identical with the spiny species, 

 tliat it has been supposed bj'' some to be merelj' a variety of it modified by climate. Mr. Gould 

 says, " The more southern position and colder climate of that island may have had the eficct of 

 giving it a warmer coat, whiter spines, and of altering its general apj)earance."* An opinion in 

 which I do not concur, if it implies that the animal, notwithstanding these changes, still contmued 



* GoDLD, " MammaLs of Australia." 



