ORDER OF MONOTREMATA. 
15 
them, but which is now restricted to the Ant-eaters proper of 
South America. 
We possess no further information respecting the Echidnse. 
Some of these animals have lived in captivity. They remained 
during the greatest part of the time plunged in a sort of torpor, 
rolled up in a ball like the Hedgehog. They were not fierce, 
and seemed to take a pleasure in being caressed. Messrs. Quoy 
and Gaimard, who brought over in their ship, the Astrolabe, one 
of these animals, fed it on sugared liquids. One lived for about 
three years in the London Zoological Gardens. 
Fig. 2. — Porcupine Ant-eater ( Echidna aculeata ). 
The Echidna aculeata is two or three times as large as the 
European Hedgehog. It is found on the mainland of Australia ; 
being replaced in the island of Tasmania by a second species, the 
E. setosa, which has comparatively few prickles and much close 
fur between them. Some bones of a much larger extinct species 
have been discovered on the mainland of South Australia. 
