LIFE HISTORY OF MTQNOTREMES, 



233 



rabbit-trappers. Although the traps are cunningly camouflaged by being buried 

 .n the soil, they are often discovered by the Echidna, which appears to mistake 

 Hie disturbed earth around them tor the work of some burrowing insect. They 

 ore consequently found gripped in the .jaws of the trap by the trappers on their 

 morning rounds, and 1 was informed by one man that he had caught the same 

 Echidna on three separate occasions in the one trap. Fortunately, most of 

 the trappers release the animal, its skin being of no commercial value, hut though 

 their limbs arc seldom broken by the traps (possibly their sluggish movements 

 cause them to struggle less than other animals) 1 believe a large percentage of 

 the crippled heasts crawl hack to their lairs among the houhlers, where they die 



vs a result of hi 1-poisoning . This belief is supported by the evidence of 



bleached hones and quilis unearthed by rabhits at the mouths of Echidna's natural 

 rooks. It would ippear that the rabbits readily occupy such strongholds so soon 



■ ' . * rr 



Fig. 2. — Female Echidna. H. Bdrrbll, Photo. 



as they find that the former tenant has ceased to raise its spines. The staple 

 fcod of the Echidna consists of Ants, principally the Sugar Ant (Camponoius 

 ni (triceps) ; the mound-building meat ant appears to ma to be only secondary in 

 diet. 



In the excretum of the Echidna I have found as many as fourteen undigested 

 heads of larvae, probably of a beetle of the Family Scarabaeidae ; and several 

 pieces of gravel, ranging in size from a match-head to the size of a split pea, in 

 the one stool. I have found on removing the young from the Echidna's pouch, 

 that the pouch was filled with a pale amber coloured fluid; it was so full that 

 when the lips of the pouch were pressed together it oozed out. I estimated the 

 quantity to be from two to three ounces. I thought at the time that the fluid 



