194 General Notes. [ February, 
stating whether it was the Ornithorhynchus or Echidna, Dr. J. 
W. Haacke discovered that Echidna laid eggs. His discovery 
was reported in the same number of the South Australian Regis- 
ter as contained Caldwell’s dispatch to the British Association at 
Montreal. On Sept. 2d, at a meeting of the Royal Society of 
South Australia, the Register reports: “ Dr. Haacke laid a num- 
ber of specimens on the table, including an egg found in the 
pouch of a female Echidna, in support of the theory that the 
Echidna, although a milk-giving animal, lays eggs which are 
hatched in the pouch.” Dr. Haacke, in a communication to the 
Zoologischer Anzeiger of Dec. 1, adds: “I found the egg on the 
25th of August last in the mammary pouch (not the uterus) of a 
living Echidna hystrix, received about the 3d of the same month 
from Kangaroo island. e egg was unfortunately decomposed 
inside, but the circumstance of the mother having been worrie 
by being captured and kept in captivity easily accounts for this.” 
He also says that in dissecting the Echidna he felt a small object 
in the pouch ; in hopes of finding a young Echidna he brought 
it to the light, and was astonished to behold a veritable egg be- 
tween his fingers! It was from one and a-half to two centi- 
meters in diameter, and possessed, as many reptilian eggs, a per- 
gamentaceous shell which, under the pressure of his fingers, 
burst, letting out thick fluid contents. The scientific public will 
now look with interest to Mr. Caldwell’s account of his dis- 
covery. 
DISTRIBUTION OF Mammats.—At the Montreal meeting of the 
British Association Dr. G: Dobson read a paper on the distribu- 
tion of mammals, in which he pointed out the remarkable resem- 
blance between certain bats of the Australian and Ethiopian re- 
gions. From this it was apparent that some communication once 
existed between those continents. There probably had been a 
chain of islands between Australasia and Africa, which had ex- 
isted for a short period, by which route the bat had passed from 
one place to another. Bats were widely spread in Madagascar, 
Mauritius, and Australia, but there is only one species in India 
which shows a strong resemblance to the Madagascar bats. So 
it is evident that at no distant day they had common ancestors. 
It was, therefore, deduced that there must have been a chain of 
Australia, Madagascar, and India. Professor Moseley said that 
the Indian ocean had never been examined as to depth, the 
_ Challenger expedition not touching it. Dr. John Ball urged that 
the existence of islands and continents was often too dogmatically 
laid down; he believed that currents could carry trees which 
might bear animals and plants with them. : 
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