I 
since this tribe of insects is probably more numerous in Australia than in any other part of the world ; they 
are procured by means of its protractile, lengthened, slender and flexible tongue, which is constantly kept 
lubricated with a viscous matter, to which the ants adhere. “To supply this secretion,” says Mr. Water- 
house in the work above quoted, “ the Echidna is provided with two enormous submaxillary glands, which 
extend from behind the ear to the fore-part of the chest. There are no teeth to the jaws, but the palatal 
portion of the mouth is armed with several rows of strong horny spines, the points of which are directed 
backwards ; and on the upper surface of the tongue are numerous small horny warts, between which and the 
palatal spines the prey of the animal is, no doubt, crushed before passing into the stomach.” Lieut. Breton 
states that “ occasionally the tongue is curved laterally, and the food as it were swept into the mouth.” 
The muzzle is covered with a naked purplish black skin ; the eyes are small and black ; the rather short 
and stout body is covered with a thick skin, particularly on the back, where it has to support the strong 
spines ; these are of a dirty white colour, more or less broadly tipped with black, sharply pointed, and about 
one inch and three-quarters in length ; they commence on the back part of the head, and extend over the 
whole upper surface of the body ; their points are directed backwards, and on the back inwards, so that 
they cross each other in the mesial line ; near the root of the tail they form a large tuft, radiating from two 
approximating centres, and hide the small rudimentary tail ; the head, with the exception of the hinder 
half of the upper surface, and the lower half of the sides of the body, as well as the whole of the under 
surface and limbs, are covered with coarse brownish black hairs ; the legs are short and strong ; the fore 
feet short and broad, and armed with large, solid and nearly straight nails, that of the middle toe being 
about an inch in length and a quarter of an inch in width ; the shortest, that of the inner toe, is four or 
five lines in length ; all are rounded at the extremity ; the lined feet are narrower and less powerful than 
the others, and have the inner toe very short, apparently slightly opposable, and with a short and broad nail 
rounded at the extremity; the toe next the inner one is the longest, and is armed with an enormous claw, 
measuring sometimes an inch and a half in length ; it is curved and nearly cylindrical, but concave beneath ; 
the claws of the other toes are progressively shorter. The hind foot, when in its natural position, rests on 
its inner side, and perhaps in a great measure upon the thumb or great toe, by which arrangement the 
claws are protected from wear when the animal is walking, and have the concave surface presented outwards ; 
the use of these claws, it would appear, is to cast away the earth which is loosened by the stronger fore- 
feet and claws. Like the Ornithorhynchus, the heel in the male sex is armed with a strong spur, which is 
moveable, perforated, and supplied with a gland and muscles capable of ejecting the secretion of the gland 
through the canal of the spur. Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard tried, by irritating the animal, to induce it 
to inflict a wound upon themselves, in order to ascertain whether this apparatus was poisonous, but were 
unsuccessful ; and after repeated inquiries could not learn that any accident had ever happened from a 
wound of the spur. 
The figures are of the natural size. 
