Central Parts of Victoria. 



67 



and thus presenting nothing but his prickly back to his 

 adversaries." The body of the animal, when burrowing, is 

 contracted into a minimum space, and the loose earth thrown 

 backwards, the whole of its spiny back thus becoming 

 gradually covered, till, by suddenly expanding its quills, it is 

 thrown off. An echidna being placed in a large chest of 

 earth containing plants, the animal arrived at the bottom m 

 less than two minutes, (mWe Quoy and Gaimard). I kept 

 two living specimens on a tether rope for a considerable 

 length of time, with the intention of bringing them to 

 Melbourne alive, but unfavorable circumstances compelled me 

 to kill them, and content myself with securing the skins alone. 



Many naturaUsts make the platypus and echidna the 

 representatives of a new order. Both these animals possess 

 the ossa marsupiala, though no traces of a pouch are at all 

 discoverable, whence it appears to me that they cannot with 

 propriety be classed with the marsupials. " The platypus," 

 says Waterhouse, " is decidedly the lowest of the mammaha 

 yet discovered; and both it and the echidna, in many of 

 their anatomical characters, evince a considerable approach 

 towards the class reptilia. The latter animal, too, is known 

 to possess a power of ftisting which had hitherto been ascribed 

 only to reptiles, and becomes dormant when exposed to any 

 considerable degree of cold. 



Prenziculantia. — Of this order, only one species, viz.:— the 

 Hydromis is at present known to me. 



Incredible numbers of water rats (Hydromis hucogaster) 

 frequent the lagoons of the Goulburn during the spring 

 months. These animals are remarkable for their sharp^ sight, 

 and the mode in which they swim • the whole body, with the 

 exception of the extremities of the nose and tail, being im- 

 mersed. Their extreme vigilance renders them very difficult 

 to be obtained, the least movement being sufficient to cause 

 their instant disappearance ; hence it is only by a series of 

 close observations that the beholder is apprised of their great 



numbers. , , 



Wombat— TlV\s clumsy, but well known, animal {rhas- 

 colomys wombat) during the day conceals himself m his gloomy 

 lair in the loneliest recesses of the mountains, and usually 

 on the banks of a creek, and at night roams about m 

 search of food, which it finds by grubbing about the roots ot 

 gigantic eucalypti. Thus protected by the darkness and the 

 dense forest, but few opportunities occur to the naturalist of 

 making close observation of its habits, which accounts for 



