314 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



pine, and the mouth and tongue of the Ant-eater, exhi- 

 bited a connecting link between these two genera, were, in 

 fact, groundless, or, at least, had only a superficial appli- 

 cation. The Doctor merely repeats his former account of 

 the animal in the General Zoology, in 1800; but Sir 

 Everard Home, in 1802, published the result of his in- 

 spection of it in the Philosophical Transactions. This gen- 

 tleman then discovered the analogies between this species 

 and the Ornithorynchus, and associated the two together as 

 a single genus, which he considered intermediate between 

 the classes Mammalia, Birds, and Reptiles. Having, 

 therefore, removed the animal from among the Ant-eaters, 

 where Dr. Shaw had placed it, he named the species Or- 

 nithorynchus Hystrix, or the Porcupine Ornithorynchus. 



The French naturalists, however, were not satisfied with 

 treating the animal in question as a congener with the 

 Ornithorynchus, and the Baron in his Tableau Eltnientare 

 des Animaux, established a distinct genus for it, under the 

 name Echidna, having reference to its spiny covering. 



This animal, says Dr. Shaw, so far as may be judged 

 from the specimens hitherto imported, is about a foot in 

 length ; the whole upper parts of the body and tail are 

 thickly coated with strong and very sharp spines, of a consi- 

 derable length, and perfectly resembling those of a Porcu- 

 pine, except that they are thicker in proportion to their 

 length ; and that instead of being encircled or annulated 

 with several alternate rings of black and white, as in that 

 animal, they are mostly of a yellowish white, with black 

 tips, the colour running down to some little distance on the 

 quill, and being separated from the white part by a circle 

 of dull orange ; others have but a very slight appearance of 

 black toward the tips. The head, legs, and whole under 

 part of the body, are of a deep brown or sable, and are 

 thickly coated with strong close-set bristly hair. The tail 

 is extremely short, slightly flattened at the tip, and coated 



