] 12 Quadrupeds. 
turbed. They were fed with worms, and bread and 
milk ; but captivity did not seem to agree with them, 
and they soon died. They dressed their fur by comb- 
ing it with their feet, and pecking at it with their 
beaks, seeming to take great delight in keeping it 
smooth and clean. 
The shape of this animal is so extraordinary, that 
when a specimen was first sent to Europe, it was sup- 
posed to have been manufactured, by fixing the beak of 
a duck into the head of some small quadruped, with 
the intention to deceive. Subsequent experience has 
proved, beyond the possibility of a doubt, the existence 
of the animal, without in the smallest degree diminish- 
ing the wonder excited by its first appearance, as it 
seems to partake, in almost equal parts, of the nature of 
quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles. 
The Australian Hedgehog (Echidna hystrix), has a 
long and very slender muzzle, at the end of which is a 
very small mouth, containing a long tongue, which the 
creature can extend at pleasure. The body is short and 
rounded : it is covered with strong sharp spines mixed 
with hair; and its tail is so short that it was at first 
doubted whether it had one. The male has a spur upon 
each hind leg, which was long supposed, but it seems 
erroneously, to possess venomous properties. Both the 
Platypus and the Australian Hedgehog, although ar- 
ranged here with the toothless quadrupeds, are gene- 
rally considered by zoologists to be most closely related 
to the Marsupials, or Pouched Mammalia. 
