] 12 Quadrupeds. 



turbed. They were fed with worms, and bread and 

 milk ; but captivity did not seem to agree with them, 

 and they soon died. They dressed their fur by comb- 

 ing it with their feet, and pecking at it with their 

 beaks, seeming to take great delight in keeping it 

 smooth and clean. 



The shape of this animal is so extraordinary, that 

 when a specimen was first sent to Europe, it was sup- 

 posed to have been manufactured, by fixing the beak of 

 a duck into the head of some small quadruped, with 

 the intention to deceive. Subsequent experience has 

 proved, beyond the possibility of a doubt, the existence 

 of the animal, without in the smallest degree diminish- 

 ing the wonder excited by its first appearance, as it 

 seems to partake, in almost equal parts, of the nature of 

 quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles. 



The Australian Hedgehog (Echidna hystrix), has a 

 long and very slender muzzle, at the end of which is a 

 very small mouth, containing a long tongue, which the 

 creature can extend at pleasure. The body is short, and 

 rounded : it is covered with strong sharp spines mixed 

 with hair; and its tail is so short that it was at first 

 doubted whether it had one. The male has a spur upon 

 each hind leg, which was long supposed, but it seems 

 erroneously, to possess venomous properties. Both the 

 Platypus and the Australian Hedgehog, although ar- 

 ranged here with the toothless quadrupeds, are gene- 

 rally considered by zoologists to be most closely related 

 to the Marsupials, or Pouched Mammalia. 



