678 PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE MARSUPIAL POUCHES, MAMMARY GLANDS, 
It appears that Mr. Harris, being in Colac Forest, Victoria, on the 12th of August, 
1864, his attention was attracted by his dogs to a fallen tree, in the hollow of which the 
Echidna had taken refuge. “ On examining her I found the young one attached to one 
teat, presenting the appearance of a miniature Porcupine *, with an absence of quills, 
partially transparent, of a bright red colour.” The mother was placed in a porter-cask 
with earth containing ants. 
“ On Wednesday the 17th of August it still remained attached to the teat, presenting 
the same appearance as when first captured, evidently in a living state. I avoided 
handling it more than necessary, as it evinced signs of terror by a protrusion of the 
vagina and frequently emitting urine. 
•“ On Thursday, 18th of August, I emptied the earth out of the cask, to replace it with 
fresh earth containing ants, and to my surprise found the young one removed from the 
teat. I ‘ panned off’ the earth, as for gold, and found the young considerably shrunk.” 
Mr. Harris thereupon placed it in a bottle of spirits, and transmitted it, with the 
mother alive, to Dr. Mueller, Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. Mr. Harris concludes his 
letter by stating, “ My dates are correct, as I keep a diary, and you may rely upon what 
I have stated being authentic.” 
The condition in which the young Echidna has reached me accords with the above 
account. It is naked, devoid of prickles, the integument thin, but with its transparency 
affected by the action of the alcohol, and somewhat wrinkled from contractions of the 
tissues through the same action. The new-born Kangaroo, of similar size and con- 
dition, described in the Philosophical Transactions for 1834, p. 344, Plate VII. fig. 5, 
was also red, like an earthworm, “ resembling it not only in colour, but in the semi- 
transparency of the integument.” Mr. Harris’s observation of the young Echidna 
closely accords in this character with my own on the new-born living Kangaroo. 
Mr. Harris observed the young Echidna attached to the mother, and he concluded 
from analogy that the mode of attachment was as in the other land-quadrupeds of the 
colony and in mammalia generally ; whereas it was kept in situ by the duplicature of 
the skin, and by clinging with the precociously-developed claws of the fore feet to the 
interior of the pouch. There was most assuredly no nipple : in that particular my own 
scrutiny accords with the results of the examination of the recent animal by Drs. 
Mueller and Rudall. What appearances suggested to them the idea of four quite 
rudimentary mammary glands I have been unable to discover; the pair of large mam- 
mary glands, together with the pouches into which they pour their secretion, had 
escaped their observation. 
The youn ^Echidna (Plate XLI. figs. 3 & 4), of which the admeasurements have been 
given, resembles the young Ornithorhynchus (ib. fig. 5) in the general shape and 
curvature of the body ; it also resembles the new-born Kangaroo above cited in the 
proportions of the limbs to the body, in the inferior size of the hinder pair, in the 
degree of development of the digits, and in the feeble indication of eyes or eyelids. 
* The name by which the Echidna is commonly known to the settlers and gold-seekers of the colony. 
