THE ANNALS 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FIFTfl SERIES.] 

 No. 84. DECEMBER 1884. 



XLV. — Description of an Impregnated Uterus and of the 

 Uterine Ova 0/ Echidna hystrix. By Sir RiCHARD OwEN, 

 K.C.B., F.R.S., &c. 



[Plate XIII.] 



In the ' Transactions of the Royal Society ' for 1865 a de- 

 scription is given of the marsupial pouches of the Echidna 

 hystrix and of a " mammary foetus " found in one of the 

 pouches ; they form a pair, and differ not only in this respect, 

 but in the absence of a nipple, from the single mammary 

 pouch of the Marsupialia. Each pouch is small : the one 

 from which the young Echidna, not more than 1 inch 10 lines 

 in length, Avas taken seemed capable only of receiving the 

 head and fore limbs*, the rest of the body being covered and 

 concealed by the hair of the under surface of the parent's 

 body. 



As this specimen was captured on the 12th of August, 

 1864, 1 communicated to my friend George Frederic Bennett, 

 Esq., Corresponding lyiember of the Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don, then resident atToowoomba, Queensland, that the months 

 of July, August, and September would be most favourable for 

 the capture of impregnated females of the spiny Monotreme. 



• ' Anatomy of Vertebrates,' vol. iii. p. 767, fig. 603. 

 Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol xiv. 29 



