WOMBATS—SPINY ANTEATERS 



239 



as the hairy-nosed wombat (P. latifrons), is intermediate in size between the first 

 and second. It has somewhat longer and more pointed ears, a hairy muzzle, and 

 a long and silky coat. This wombat was long supposed to be restricted to South 

 Australia, but in the Melbourne Museum are preserved four specimens of this 

 species, obtained from a lonely part of New South Wales in or near Denison 

 county about the year 1884. Whether the species still survives there is unknown, 

 but the donor of the specimens stated that it never occurred in any other part of 

 the colony. These New South Wales hairy-nosed wombats are stated to differ 

 from their relatives of South Australia in the characters of the nose, while the 

 skull appears to be shorter and rounder. If these differences are well established, 

 the New South Wales form apparently indicates a distinct species. 



0fo* 



TASMANIAN WOMBAT. 



Spiny 

 Anteaters. 



By far the most peculiar members of the Australian fauna are 

 the spiny anteaters, or echidnas, and the platypus, or duckbill, since 

 these alone represent a group of mammals — the Monotremata — which forms a 

 subclass, and is at the present day at any rate unknown in any other part of the 

 world. When these strange mammals were first made known to European 

 naturalists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was believed that they 

 resembled birds in laying eggs in place of producing living young. This belief 

 suffered, however, a severe shock by the discovery that they were provided with 

 milk-glands, since the possibility of the existence of egg-laying mammals appeared 

 incredible. The truth of the old belief was, however, fully demonstrated by the 

 discovery in the year 1884 of an egg of the spiny anteater. As a matter of fact, 

 the structure of both the spiny anteater and the platypus differs in so many 

 important respects from that of other mammals, and accords in so many characters 

 with that of reptiles and birds, that it is scarcely a matter for surprise that these 

 animals should resemble the latter in the mode of reproduction. In this connection 



