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XX1Y. On the Ova of the Echidna Hystrix. 
By Professor Owen, C.B., F.B.S., &c. 
Received April 20,—Read May 13, 1880. 
[Plate 39.] 
Towards a knowledge of the generative economy of the Spiny Monotreme ( Echidna 
Hystrix, Cuv.) the recorded steps are the following :— 
The fact of its possessing mammary but teat-less glands, as in the Ornithorhynchus ; " 
that these glands acquired large and functional development concomitant with ovarian 
indications of recent gestation ;t that the lacteal areola became lodged in a tegumentary 
depression or quasi pouch, capable of receiving the head and fore limbs of the young,| 
at least when this was not more than 1 inch 10 lines in total length. 
The female Echidna and her young, the subjects of the paper of 1865, were taken 
in Lolac Forest, Victoria, Australia, on the 12th August, 1864. Guided thereby, I 
noted, in correspondence with friends in localities frequented by the Echidnae, the 
period when females in the impregnated state might be obtained, with instructions as to 
the parts to be preserved and transmitted, in alcohol, for examination ; noting, also, the 
chief facts which remained to be determined § in reference to the subject of the present 
communication. Among such friendly correspondents I have the good fortune to 
include George Frederic Bennett, Esq., Corresponding Member of the Zoological 
Society of London, resident at a locality, Toowoomba, in Queensland, where individuals 
of the Echidna Hystrix were to be had. In a letter of September 23rd, 1878, 
Mr. Bennett writes “ You will have received, ere this reaches you, specimens of 
probably impregnated Echidna got on various dates—July 18th, 27th, and August 9th.” 
The correspondent’s father, my friend Dr. Bennett, F.L.S., being in London when 
these specimens had arrived, I dissected them in his presence, but found not any ovum 
in either uterus. [| The ovaria showed one or more enlarged ovisacs. 
As the season of generation might vary within certain limits in different localities, 
I urged the prosecution of the quest through the months of August and September. 
* Phil. Trans., 1832, p. 537, Plate 17, figs. 2 and 3. 
t Op. tit., 1865, p. 674, Plate 40, figs. 1-5. 
X Ibid., p. 675. 
§ Ibid., p. 677, Plate 40, figs, 6-10. Ibid., pp. 672, 682. 
|| See the figure of the female generative organs of Echidna Hystrix, in Phil. Trans., 1865, Plate 41, fig. 1. 
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