3 
With regard to the form in which the young of the Echidna 
and Platypus are horn, nothing is certainly known — whether 
included in an egg, or more probably as an egg bursting on 
extrusion, much as one witnesses in the little British lizard kept 
in vivaria. 
The protection given to the young by the Platypus differs 
from the Echidna. The former has a nest in the river bank, and 
has no pouch in which it can carry its young. 
I am not aware that the Echidna ever makes a regular nest ; 
it can form a pouch in which to carry its young, though of this 
latter more observation is required. 
The abdominal integument in the quiescent state is generally 
flattened out, but by an effort on the part of male or female 
a pouch can be formed much like that of the kangaroo. This I 
have seen when giving these animals chloroform, to enable me to 
unroll them, and when experimenting on them with the Pituri of 
the aborigines. 
In this pouch the apertures of the milk glands are found. 
The glands themselves are of immense size, occupying the whole 
of the side of the body from the front to the hind leg. They are 
placed under the muscular layer which enables the animal to 
roll itself in a ball, by the contraction of which muscle the milk 
is also pressed out at the will of the mother, as there are no 
nipples. 
It would be interesting to find out what attitude the Echidna 
assumes in suckling its young. In lying on its back the milk 
would fill the pouch referred to as a cup. 
The tongue of the Echidna is a long skewer-like organ, which 
moves with surprising swiftness. A tame Echidna I once had 
was very tractable, and would feed under observation — a thing 
that rarely happens with these timid creatures. It would thrust 
its tongue out about three inches, passing it through and through 
the milk given to it, like a small eel. As the fluid was reduced 
bits of chopped egg in the milk were as if hooked into its mouth. 
The most remarkable observation I made was on an Echidna 
recently killed by a wood-carter. On dissection its stomach Avas 
full of milk. Though of adult size it was a young animal ; its 
claws being perfect and uninjured. The claws of old Echidnas 
are more or less deformed by digging, at which operation no 
animal of its size is so able. I am of opinion that the young 
Echidna takes milk from its mother until it is full-grown. On 
confining an Echidna in a box one is astonished to find that the 
animal invariably breaks loose through wood or wire — even a 
zinc-lined case is not proof against its powers of penetration. 
Persons trying to tame Echidnas, and render them tractable, 
should first have constructed a well-made movable cage of inch- 
thick boards, the front of which may be closed with wire of half- 
inch mesh, made very strong, with fencing wire woven through 
every two inches of its area. As the excretions are very offen- 
