1884.] DR. LUTKEN ON TACHYGLOSSUS ACULEATUS. 151 



specimen bought in 1848 of Mr. Bertelsen with the description. 

 This comparison leaves little doubt iu our minds that our specimen 

 is really one of the true T. lawesi, or of a nearly allied form. Its 

 specific distinction from T. aculeatus is beyond all doubt. 



That such an animal does not live in the neighbourhood of Sydney, 

 where Mr. Bertelsen probably purchased his specimen, is evident, 

 and though there were a few Malayan animals (a Paradoxurus and 

 a Tragulus) in the collection, I can but think it very improbable 

 that Mr. Bertelsen should have been able to obtain in 1848, at 

 Sydney or thereabouts, a skin of a New-Guinean animal. I should 

 rather think, therefore, that the specimen might possibly have been 

 brought to Sydney from some other more or less distant part of 

 Australia, say from Queensland, where it is now well known that the 

 Echidna occurs. I am well aware that the Queensland Echidna has 

 been described by competent observers as identical with the more 

 southern T. aculeatus ; but I should nevertheless venture to recom- 

 mend a renewed examination of specimens of Tachyglossus in the 

 British and Australian Museums, especially of specimens from Queens- 

 land and North Australia. The result might possibly be tbe dis- 

 covery of a species inhabiting the north-eastern part of the Australian 

 continent, different from the typical T. aculeatus, and closely related 

 to, if not identical with, the T. lawesi of south-eastern New-Guinea. 

 As renewed investigations are going on at this very moment, if I 

 am not mistaken, in Australia concerning the reproduction of the 

 Ornithodelphs, I do not delay longer to bring this suggestion, and 

 the facts which have induced me to make it, to the knowledge of 

 those who are especially interested in elucidating the specific 

 characters and the geographical distribution of these animals. 



The supposed specimen of Tacky glossus lawesi now before me is a 

 rather large animal measuring 423 millim. in a straight line, the 

 length of the snout from the eye to the point being 63 millim. The 

 snout or rostrum is somewhat longer proportionally than in a male 

 specimen of T. aculeatus also before me, the spines of the back longer 

 and stronger, rufous-yellowish with black points. Scarcely any 

 hairs are intermixed with the spines, much fewer than in T. acu- 

 leatus, T. lawesi being thus, of the whole family, the species best 

 provided with an armature of spines, longer, stronger, and more 

 densely placed than in any other. Also instead of being limited to 

 the back above a horizontal line from the shoulder to the tail, the 

 spines in this species descend on the flanks, though they do not quite 

 reach the belly. Its most salient and unequivocal character, how- 

 ever, is the different proportions of the hind claws. Iu T. aculeatus 

 there is a regular climax from the fifth continuously to the second 

 longest claw, this exceeding the third only slightly in length, where- 

 as in T. lawesi the three external claws increase only slightly in size 

 from the fifth to the third, which is therefore much shorter than the 

 second, this last claw being in fact more than double the length of 

 the third. 



I have extended this comparison to the hind bones and the in- 

 complete crania extracted from the skins. The cranium of the 



