ECHIDNA AND NODIAK 
are clothed in silky brown hair. The males have spurs on their 
heels, like the duckbill, but have never been seen to use them. 
It dwells in burrows of its own digging, and feeds upon ants 
caught precisely after the manner of other ant-eaters; and in 
captivity, where it makes a gentle and intelligent pet, is fond 
of scrambling about whatever it is allowed to climb.™ 
Its Papuan cousin, the nodiak, is larger, with a much 
more prolonged snout and tongue, and but three front toes. 
AN ECHIDNA, OR SPINY ANT-EATERK. 
The aborigines hunt it for food in the mountain by the aid 
of dogs which know how to dislodge it from its burrow. 
The reproductive process in this family differs somewhat 
from that among the duckbills; for here, instead of the eggs 
being laid in a burrow nest, and covered by the mother, like a 
brooding hen, the echidna’s egg is placed by the lips of the 
mother within two parallel folds of skin which at that season 
form a deep groove in the abdomen inclosing the nursing area, 
and is held there until it hatches, the young ant-eater breaking 
out at last by aid of an ‘“‘egg tooth,” or temporary hard tip on 
the end of the nose. When the young has attained a certain 
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