ISLAND FAUNA 89 



object to every student of the marvels of Nature. When 

 disturbed, the echidna resolves itself into a ball, tucking its 

 long snout between its forelegs, and packing its barely 

 perceptible tail close between the hind ones, presenting an 

 array of menacing prickles whencesoever attacked. While 

 in this ball-like posture, the animal, as chance affords, digs 

 with its short strong legs and steel-like claws, tearing 

 asunder roots, and casting aside stones, and the ease and 

 rapidity with which it disappears in soft soil are astonishing. 

 The horrific array of pickles presented as it digs an 

 undignified retreat, and the tenacity with which it holds the 

 ground, have given rise to the fiction that no dog is capable 

 of killing an echidna. No ordinary dog is. He must be 

 cunning, daring, brave, insensible to pain, and resourceful. 

 Then the feat is quite ordinary. Indeed, once the trick is 

 learned, the trouble is to keep the dog from attacking its 

 innocent, useful and most retiring enemy. The echidna 

 has the ill-luck to possess certain subtle qualities, which 

 excite terrific enthusiasm for its destruction on the part of 

 the dog. Either there is an hereditary feud between the 

 dog and the echidna, which the former is bound in honour 

 to push to the last extremity, or else the dog regards the 

 prickly creature as a perpetual affront, or specially created 

 to provide opportunities for displaying fanatic hatred and 

 hostility. No dog of healthy instinct is able to pass an 

 echidna without some sort of an attempt upon its life. 

 The long tubular nose of the echidna is the vital spot. 

 This is guarded with such shrewdness and determination as 

 to be impregnable. But the dog which pursues the proper 

 tactics, and is wily and patient, sooner or later — regardless 

 of the alleged poisonous spur — seizes one of the hind legs, 

 and the conflict quickly comes to an end. 



By the blacks the echidna, which is known as " Coom- 

 bee-yan," is placed on the very top of the list of those 

 dainties which the crafty old men reserve for themselves 

 under awe-inspiring penalties. 



Next in size to the echidna is the white-tipped rat 

 ( Uromys hirsutus ?), water-loving, nocturnal in its habits. 



