ANT-EATING ANIMALS 
THE AUSTRALIA ANT-EATER 
_ This animal is undoubtedly Australian and is also 
an eater of ants, and yet the name seems ill chosen, for 
it suggests a comparison with the ant-eaters of America 
and of the Old World. Echidna has nothing whatever 
to do with those Edentates since it belongs to a quite 
different order whose general characters have been 
sketched out, OfEchidna aculeata there is as a rule, 
or at least often, a specimen to be seen at the Zoo. Its 
general characters mark it out as distinct from any other 
mammal, from which indeed it can readily be differen- 
tiated without having recourse to its skeleton. The 
long and toothless snout recalls the Myrmecophaga and 
the Old World Manis; anda long and viscid tongue 
protrudes itself in the same way from these toothless 
jaws. But the body is covered with a dense covering 
of sharp spines, mingled with hairs, in a fashion more 
like that of the hedgehog than of any other mammal. 
The ways of the Echidna, when in search of termites, 
are much those of its ant-eating representatives in other 
countries. Its stout claws are able to make a breach 
in the walls of the fortress manned by the ants, and 
into this breach it thrusts its long tongue and waits 
until the exploratory and indignant ants have limed 
themselves thereon. In default of ants the Echidna 
will put up with worms, and larve, which it extracts 
by means of the same long and thin tongue, which can 
be inserted into crevices and can draw therefrom the 
lurking insect. Nature has tempered the wind to this 
exceedingly unshorn lamb by endowing it with a 
nocturnal way of life, and with a liking for concealment 
in thick scrub. But even this does not entirely free it 
from persecution. For in spite of its spines the thyla- 
cine, as we have already said, has been known to swallow 
a spiny ant-eater whole, just as the leopard in India 
will grapple with the equally spiny porcupine. The 
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