THE PORCUPINE ANT,EATER. 373 



It is digitigrade : it has five toes on the fore, and four toes .on its 

 hinder feet ; its marsupial bones are simply rudimental." 



If there be one group of animals more than another whose unfore- 

 seen discovery has succeeded in astonishing and embarrassing zoolo- 

 gists, it is assuredly that which has been designated by the name of 

 Monotremata. It is the lowest order of vertebrated animals, the 

 very bottom of the scale, approximating in many characteristic points 

 to the family of Birds. The pelvis, it is true, is furnished with 

 marsupial bones, but these animals possess no pouch. The skull is 

 smooth, the brain-case proportionately very small, the snout much 

 prolonged, while the jaws have neither teeth nor soft movable lips. 

 The shoulder-bones do not resemble those of a mammal, but in some 

 respects the scapular joint of the bird ; in other respects, that of the 

 reptiles. The feet have five toes, each armed with a long nail ; and, 

 in addition, the hind-feet are provided with a perforated spur-like 

 weapon, which is connected with a gland. The genus derives its 

 distinctive name from the circumstance that the orifices of the urinary 

 canals, the intestinal and the generative canals, open, as in birds, into 

 a common vent. The mammary glands, of which only one exists on 

 each side, are not furnished with nipples, but open by simple slits on 

 each side of the abdomen. 



This order includes two families : the Ornithorhynchidce and the 

 Echidnidce, both belonging to Australia and Tasmania. The former 

 are aquatic in their habits, the latter terrestrial. 



The Echidna (Echidna Hystiix}, or Porcupine Ant-Eater, 

 resembles the Porcupine in his general appearance and coat of spines, 

 the Ant-Eater in his snout, mouth, and long lubricated tongue. His 

 legs are very short and thick, and each is furnished with five broad 

 rounded toes ; the four toes are armed with a long blunt claw, but 

 on the hind-feet one toe is without a claw, two are short and blunt, 

 and one is of great length, rather curved, and sharp pointed. He 

 measures about twelve inches, and all over the upper-parts of the 

 body and tail is thickly beset with formidable spines, very sharp and 

 strong ; over the head, legs, and under-parts with bristly hair of a 



