MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA 211 



and grace, disappearing when disturbed with astonishing celerity. 

 Sometimes on a moonlit night these strange creatures may be seen 

 disporting themselves in a river or stream. They do not love the 

 sunlight, and rarely come ashore. The Platypus makes its home, 

 a long narrow tunnel, in the banks of the stream wherein it obtains 

 the aquatic insects and shell-fish on which it subsists. The burrow 

 is excavated obliquely upwards from an entrance below the surface 

 of the water. At the end it opens out into a domed chamber, which 

 is snugly lined with dried grass bents, leaves, etc. The burrow 

 is often over twenty feet in length. From one to four eggs are 

 deposited by the female Platypus in the domed chamber described. 

 The eggs are of an oval shape and the colour is dirty-white. The 

 texture of the outer shell is leathery, as in the case of the Turtles and 

 other Reptiles. 



In Victoria, the State where the writer resides, the Government 

 has wisely placed the Platypus on the "continuously protected" 

 list. It would be a national, nay, a world calamity for such a 

 wonderful animal to cease to exist. 



ECHIDNA. — The Echidnas, or Porcupine Ant-Eaters (there 

 are three varieties), form the second family of the Monotremes. 

 They differ in external appearance from the Platypus and also in 

 habits. They are burrowing animals, exclusively terrestrial, in- 

 habiting forests and rocky localities. The typical variety. Echidna 

 aculeata (Fig. 165), is known to the colonists variously as the Ant- 

 Eater, Native Porcupine and Australian Hedgehog. This variety 

 is found all over Australia and Tasmania, also in South-Eastern 

 New Guinea. The colour of the hair is black or dark-brown above, 

 brown on the under-parts of the body. The long spines of the back 

 usually conceal the fur; they are yellow with a black tip. The 

 length of the head and body of a full-grown Echidna is about 

 seventeen inches. The limbs are very strong, and the curved claws 

 on the hind-feet are specially adapted for digging, which appears 

 to be one of the Echidna's favourite occupations. Owing to their 

 fossorial habits it is difficult to keep specimens of the Native Porcu- 

 pine in captivity; they will burrow in the hardest ground, tunnel 

 under the barriers of their prison, and so farewell. 



As one of its popular vernacular names implies, the Echidna 



in a wild state subsists on ants and their eggs. The head is 



elongated into a slender cylindrical beak, destitute of teeth and 



provided with a small mouth. The tongue is long, slender and 



p 2 



