148 MAMMALIA. 



xxxiv. (The Long-tailed Pangolin). Three or four feet in length ; 

 the tail double that of the body, and the scales armed with points. 

 From Senegal, Guinea, &c.* 



The third tribe of the Edentata comprehends those animals, designated 

 by M. Geoffrey, under the name of 



MONOTREMATA. 



So called, because they have only one external opening for the seminal 

 fluid, urine, and other excrements. Their organs of generation present 

 extraordinary anomalies ; for though they have no pouch under the belly, 

 their pubis is furnished with the same supernumerary bones as the Mar- 

 supialia ; the vasa deferentia terminate in the urethra which opens into 

 cloaca ; the penis, when at rest, is drawn into a sheath, which opens by a 

 hole near the bottom of the cloaca. The only matrix consists of two 

 canals or trunks, each of which opens separately and by a double orifice 

 into the urethra, which is very large, and terminates in the cloaca. As 

 naturalists have not yet agreed as to the existence of their mammae, f 

 whether they are oviparous or viviparous remains to be ascertained. J 

 The singularities of their skeleton are not less remarkable; a sort of 

 clavicule especially, which is common to both shoulders, placed before the 

 ordinary clavicle, and analogous to the fourchette in birds. Finally, be- 

 sides their five nails to each foot, the males have a peculiar spur on the 

 hinder ones, perforated by a canal, which transmits the liquid secreted by 

 a gland situated on the inner surface of the thigh. It is asserted, 

 that the wounds it inflicts are envenomed. These animals have no ex- 

 ternal conch to their ears, and their eyes are very small. 



The Monotremata are only found in New Holland, and have only been 

 discovered since the settlement of the English. Two genera of them are 

 known. 



Echidna, Cuv. — Tachyglossus, lUig. 



The elongated slender muzzle of the Spiny Ant-eaters, terminated by 



* We have verified the habitat of the Long-tailed Pangolin, by the statement of 

 M. Adanson and other travellers. 



f M. Meckel considers as such, two glandular masses he found greatly developed 

 in a female Ornithorhynchus. ]\I. Geoffroy thinks they are rather glands, analogous 

 to those on the flanks of the Shrews. 



X Travellers have lately asserted, that it has been ascertained that these animals 

 produce eggs. Should this prove to be the case, the Monotremata must, in some 

 sort, be considered as a separate class of animals; but it is to be wished that some 

 able anatomist would exactly describe these eggs, their internal origin, and their 

 development after being produced. We must expect it from some one among the 

 numerous physicians who daily visit the colony of Port Jackson. As to the anatomy 

 of the Ornithorhynchus, see the detailed monography on that subject, published by 

 M. Meckel, also the Memoirs of Sir Ev. Home, my Lessons of Comparative 

 Anatomy, Vol. V., and the Memoirs of Geofiroy St. Hilaire, Mem. du Mus. 

 tome XV. 



