306 MONOTREMATA. 



hidden by the spines, and are situated very far back* 

 Total length one foot. 



The Echidna is found in New South Wales, in tne 

 Islands of Bass' Straits, and in Van Diemen's Land ; 

 it burrows with great facility, and lives upon insects, 

 which, like the ant-eaters, it procures by means of 

 its long slender tongue, which is always covered with 

 a viscous matter. 



Messrs. Bass and Flinders, when at Twofold Bay, 

 state that their dogs found a Porcupine Ant-eater, 

 (or Echidna) but that the dogs made no impression 

 on the animal, which escaped by burrowing in the 

 loose sand, not head foremost, hut by sinking himself 

 directly downwards, and thus presenting nothing but 

 his prickly back to his adversaries. 



A living specimen of the Echidna, was procured 

 by Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard, at Hobart Town, and 

 these Naturalists furnish us with an interesting ac- 

 count of the habits of the animal as observed in 

 confinement. They describe it as an apathetic and 

 stupid animal ; for the first month after its capture, 

 it took no sustenance whatever, and became very 

 thin, though without appearing to suffer.* It was 

 fond of obscurity, shunning the light during the day, 

 and crouching to the ground with its head between 

 its legs ; in this position it presented at all parts a 

 mass of spines like a Hedgehog, but was not able to 



* The Echidna and Ornithorliynchus in many of their ana- 

 tomical characters evince a considerable approach to the 

 Reptiles, and it would appear, from the above account, that 

 the present animal is reptile-like in its power of fasting. 



