Central Parts of Victoria. 67 
and thus presenting nothing but his prickly back to his 
adversaries.” The body of the animal, when burrowing, is 
contracted into a minimum spaee, and the loose earth thrown 
backwards, the whole of its spiny back thus becoming 
gradually covered, till, by suddenly expanding its quills, it is 
thrown off. An echidna being placed in a large chest of 
earth containing plants, the animal arrived at the bottom in 
less than two minutes, (vide Quoy and Gaimard). I kept 
two living specimens on a tether rope for a considerable 
length of time, with the intention of bringing them to 
Melbourne alive, but unfavorable circumstances compelled me 
to kill them, and content myself with securing the skins alone. 
Many naturalists make the platypus and echidna the 
representatives of a new order. Both these animals possess 
the ossa marsupiala, though no traces of a pouch are at all 
discoverable, whence it appears to me that they cannot with 
propriety be classed with the marsupials. “ The platypus,” 
says Waterhouse, “is decidedly the lowest of the mammalia 
yet discovered; and both it and the echidna, in many of 
their anatomical characters, evince a considerable approach 
towards the class reptilia. The latter animal, too, is known 
to possess a power of fasting which had hitherto been ascribed 
only to reptiles, and becomes dormant when exposed to any 
considerable degree of cold. 
Prenziculantia.—Of this order, only one species, viz.:—the 
Hydromis is at present known to me. 
Incredible numbers of water rats (Hydromis leucogaster ) 
frequent the lagoons of the Goulburn during the spring 
months. These animals are remarkable for their sharp sight, 
and the mode in which they swim: the whole body, with the 
exception of the extremities of the nose and tail, being im- 
mersed. Their extreme vigilance renders them very difficult 
to be obtained, the least movement being sufficient to cause 
their instant disappearance; hence it is only by a series of 
close observations that the beholder is apprised of their great 
numbers. 
Wombat.—This clumsy, but well known, animal (Phas- 
colomys wombat ) during the day conceals himself in his gloomy 
lair in the loneliest recesses of the mountains, and usually 
on the banks of a creek, and at night roams about in 
search of food, which it finds by grubbing about the roots of 
gigantic eucalypti. Thus protected by the darkness and the 
dense forest, but few opportunities occur to the naturalist of 
making close observation of its habits, which accounts for 
