THE ECHIDNA. 
639 
or the dawn of morning. During the rest of the day it is generally asleep. While sleep- 
ing, it cnrls itself into a ronnd ball, the tail shutting down over the head and serving to 
protect it. 
The young Mullingongs are curious little creatures, with soft, short, flexible beaks, naked 
skins, and almost unrecognizable as the children of their long-nosed parents. When they 
attain to the honor of their first coat, they are most playful little things, knocking each 
other about like kittens, and rolling on the ground in the exuberance of their mirth. Their 
little twinkling eyes are not well adapted for daylight, nor from their position can they see 
spots directly in their front, so that a pair of these little creatures that were kept by Dr. Ben- 
nett used to bump themselves against the chairs, tables, or any other object that might be 
in their way. They bear a farther similitude to the cat in their scrupulous cleanliness, and 
the continual washing and pecking of their fur. 
In endeavoring to accustom Duck-bills to a life of confinement, the chief difficulty lies 
in feeding them, for the Mullingong requires its food to be given at very frequent intervals, 
and soon perishes if not watched with the utmost care. The precise range of the animal is 
not satisfactorily ascertained, but it has never yet been seen in Southern Australia. 
The Echidna is found in several parts of Australia, where it is popularly called the 
hedgehog, on account of the hedgehog-like spines with which the body is so thickly cov- 
ered, and its custom of rolling itself up when alarmed. A number of coarse hairs are 
intermingled with the spines, and the head is devoid of these weapons. The head is strangely 
lengthened, in a manner somewhat similar to that of the ant-eater, and there are no teeth of 
any kind in the jaws. 
The food of the Echidna consists of ants and other insects, which it gathers into its 
mouth by means of the long extensile tongue. It is a burrowing animal, and is therefore 
furnished with limbs and claws of proportionate strength. Indeed, Lieutenant Breton, who 
kept one of these animals for some time, considers it as the strongest quadruped in existence 
in proportion to its size. On moderately soft ground it can hardly be captured, for it gathers 
all its legs under its body, and employs its digging claws with such extraordinary vigor 
that it sinks into the ground 
as if by magic. The hind- 
feet are employed by the 
animal for two purposes, 
i. e., locomotion and the 
offices of the toilet. There 
is a spur on the hind part 
of the male similar to that 
of the duck-bill. The flesh 
of the Echidna is very good, 
and is said to resemble that 
of the sucking-pig. There 
is another species of this 
curious animal, very simi- 
lar in every respect except 
that of color, which is of 
a darker brown, instead of 
the black and white which 
decorates the spines of the 
common Echidna. Its sci- echidna . —Echidna hystrix. 
entific title is Echidna 
setosa. The Echidna is tolerably widely spread over the sandy wastes of Australia, but has 
not been seen in the more northern portions of that country. 
In a letter addressed to Professor Owen, the Sydney (Hew South Wales) Herald , Sep- 
tember 16, 1884, says: “In both Ornithorhynchus and Echidna the amount of food-yolk in 
