308 MONOTREMATA. 



differences in the form of the nails, do not exist in 

 the specimens before me. 



The author mentioned, gives Van Diemen's Land 

 and the Islands in Bass' Straits, as the localities in 

 which the setosa is found. I have notes of several 

 specimens from Van Diemen's Land, whence I do 

 not recollect to have seen specimens of the 0. hystrix. 

 The two species, (if they be distinct, — and the differ- 

 ences are certainly not those of age or sex,) however, 

 are found in New South Wales ; they have had the 

 further two names, £. longiaculeata and E. breviacu- 

 leata, applied by Tiedemann, Zoologie i. p. 592 



The Echidna and Ornithorhpichus form an order 

 of themselves according to the views of many natural- 

 ists. By Cuvier they are classed under the term 

 Monotremata, with the Edentata of which they form 

 the third section. These animals, however, differ 

 essentially from the Edentata, in their anatomical 

 structure, whilst they agree, as it appears, chiefly in 

 one negative character, — the absence of teeth, — in 

 fact we may say, they agree with the Edentata,'^ 

 only inasmuch as that name is equally applicable to 

 certain species of the two groups, Edentata jyroper 

 and Monotremata. We must not overlook the fact, 

 that the Monotremata possess the marsupial bones, 

 so characteristic of the Marsupialia^ and at the same 

 time agree in several important anatomical characters. 



* The name Edentata is a most ill chosen one, for the great- 

 er portion of the animals so called, do possess teeth, and 

 sometimes plenty of them, to use a homely phrase, — it had 

 reference to their want of incisors. 



