404 ZOOLOGY. 
with its bird-like snout, a broad and depressed bill, covered by naked skin. 
The jaws are furnished on each side and towards the front with a long, 
narrow, horny appendage, and towards the hinder part with a broad, nearly 
ovate crushing tooth, of the same material. The tongue is short, and pro- 
vided in part with horny papilla. The eye is small. The body depressed, 
nearly oval, and clothed with a dense fur. The legs are short, and the feet 
organized for swimming. Each foot is provided with five well developed 
toes, between which a membrane extends considerably beyond the toes in 
the forefoot, the claws of which are large, solid, and depressed, and fitted 
for burrowing. The tail is rather short, broad, and depressed. The male 
is provided with a spur to the hind foot. The name of Ornithorhynchus 
has reference to the peculiar structure of the bill. A single species is well 
determined, namely, O. anatinus (pl. 112, fig. 1), of about eighteen inches 
in length, the general color dusky brown, on the upper part of the body 
rather dark, on the under paler. It inhabits New South Wales and Van 
Diemen’s Land, where it is called water mole by the colonists, on account 
of its aquatic habits and some slight resemblance which it bears to the 
common mole of Europe. It is very difficult to watch them in their native 
element, as they remain but a short time on the surface of the water, 
diving with an extraordinary rapidity at the approach of the slightest 
danger. The other species described in systematic works are established 
upon insufficient data, some of them being undoubtedly immature indi- 
viduals. 
Fam. 2. Ecuipnm, containing likewise but one genus, Echidna, or 
porcupine ant-eater, is known by its naked, elongated, slender, and attenu- 
ated snout, and the small opening of the mouth. The tongue is protractile, 
slender, cylindrical, and very long; the palate is furnished with horny 
papille ; the teeth are completely wanting. The body is furnished above 
with spines and hairs intermixed. The legs are short and powerful; the 
fore and hind feet each with five well developed toes, having large nails ; 
fore feet fitted for burrowing; the hind feet in the male furnished with a 
spur of a horny substance. The tail is very short. The animals of this 
genus are found in Australia exclusively. Two species only are enume- 
rated, and one will perhaps prove to be a local variety. At a cursory 
glance they resemble the hedgehog, were it not for their long and slender 
snout. LH. aculeata (pl. 112, fig. 2) is a small animal, about one foot in 
length, of a brownish black color. It was originally found at New South 
Wales, and more recently on the west coast, in Swan river district. E. 
setosa is from Van Diemen’s Land, from fourteen to seventeen inches in 
length. 
Both species of Echidna are terrestrial and fossorial; they feed almost 
exclusively on ants, and play in their zoological district the same part in 
the economy of nature which is assigned to the pangolins in Asia and 
Africa, and to the ant-eaters of South America. - 
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