156 



MR. R. COLLETT ON ECHIDNA ACANTHION. [Feb. 3, 



of retroverted spines, the number of which varies in the different 

 specimens ; as a rule the hinder and middlemost rows, which are 

 the longest, have 15 to 20 of these spines. They are very short and 

 sharp. 



In the young male (No. 8) the skull is not yet full-grown ; the 

 snout is remarkably short, even shorter than the breadth of the skull \ 

 The snout is not bent up, but perfectly straight, the profile of the 

 frontals not being concave over the orbits; but a faint concavity 

 can be traced beyond the middle of the nasalia. 



The snout is proportionally broad in this specimen ; the breadth 

 of the ossa nasalia on their frontal end measuring together 16 

 millim. ; in the full-grown specimen the breadth is about 10-11 

 millim, 



Vertehrce. — The number of vertebraj was as follows : — cervical 

 vertebrae 7, dorsal vertebrae 16, lumbar vertebrae 3, sacral vertebrae 

 3, caudal vertebrae 13-14 (where the latter have been complete). 

 In two specimens, a female with a total length of 425 millim. (No, 2), 

 and a male with a total length of 448 millim. (No. 3), the last 

 dorsal vertebra had no trace of ribs, and thus there were 15 dorsal 

 and 4 lumbar vertebrae. All the vertebrae were more slender than 

 in specimens of E. aculeata of the same size. 



The Limbs. — The exact measurements of the bones of fore and hind 

 limbs are as follows : — 



The ossa marsupialia have about the same length as the humerus. 



TJie claws are no doubt of precisely the same construction as in 

 the Papuan E. lawesi. The second claw is very long, strong, and 

 curved, with a length of 35-36 millim., or even 38 miUim., whereas 

 the third claw is much slenderer and is scarcely half the size of 

 the second ; its length is 15-16 millim., and it is but a Httle longer 

 than the fourth and fifth, which are the shortest. 



^ Length of the skeleton 365 millim. ; length of the skull 93 millim. ; of the 

 snout 41 millim. ; breadth of the skull 43 millim. ; proportion of the snout to 

 the skull 2-02. 



^ Measured from the articulations. 



