THE ECHIDNA 



[Echidna hystrix) 



Being a frequent exhibit at the Zoological Gardens, the Common Echidna 

 is the best known — though not the most remarkable — of the extra- 

 ordinary order of beasts known as Monotremata, the lowest of milk- 

 giving creatures, for, unlike all others which suckle their young, they 

 lay eggs like birds. It must not be supposed that on this account 

 they form in any way a link between birds and beasts, although in 

 some particulars of their anatomy also they are bird-like. But in these 

 points they are reptilian also, and it will be remembered that most 

 reptiles are egg-layers. The fact appears to be that both beasts and 

 birds arose from reptilian types, so that they form as it were the two 

 branches of a letter Y, the reptiles being the stem ; and our living 

 monotremes are the sole survivors of a race which branched off from 

 the beast stem very soon after the departure from reptiles, when all 

 these great classes were more alike than they are now. 



The Echidna has, it must be admitted, a very bird-like head, with 

 its narrow toothless beak and want of external ears ; the jaws, however, 

 are united nearly to the tips, where there is a small mouth, and the 

 nostrils are also at the end, as in a beast's muzzle. The tongue is 

 long and worm-like, as in the Ant-eaters. 



The short, stumpy, awkward-looking limbs bear each five huge claws, 



those on the fore-feet particularly strong and broad ; on the hind-foot 



the toes are turned out and back in a very peculiar way, unlike what 



is seen in other beasts. The tail is very short, and concealed by a 



cluster of the spines which cover the upper parts of the broad squat 



body, the lower, as is always the case in spiny beasts, being hairy. 



On the middle of the back the spines of the opposite sides overlap 



each other. 



In length the creature measures about a foot from muzzle to 



3 d 



