854 Marvels of the Universe 
SSS 
Photo by} LW. Saville Kent. 
THE ECHIDNA, OR PORCUPINE ANT-EATER. 
Dissimilar in every other particular, the Echidna, like the Porcupine, possesses parti-coloured spines. Besides the platypus it 
it is the only other egg-laying mammal. The single egg and the newly-hatched young is carried by the mother in a pouch 
developed on the underside of her body 
at the Zoo, and observes the pair of chisel-like teeth with which the front of each jaw is armed. 
As a matter of fact, Porcupines are akin to rats, beavers, and other members of the rodent order. 
But there seems a popular tendency, due, perhaps, to their mobile snouts, to call rodents pigs, as 
witness the familiar ‘‘ Guinea Pig.” 
The Porcupine is one of the largest of rodents, weighing something like twenty pounds; and 
since practically everyone is familiar with the marvellous armature of black- and white-banded 
spines, it will be unnecessary to describe them, although it is important to mention that certain 
wholly white quills in the tail are hollow and open at the ends. 
As a Porcupine walks, the quills in its tail make a loud rattling, and there has been considerable 
discussion as to whether this noise is of any advantage to the animal. It is, however, now the 
opinion that its function is to serve the purpose of a rattle, and thus to warn other creatures of the 
presence of a dangerous animal. 
To refer to all the different groups of mammals which develop a panoply of spines in their hide 
would spin this article out to a greater length than permissible ; and my few remaining remarks 
must therefore be restricted to the Echidnas, or Porcupine Ant-eaters, of Australia and New Guinea. 
Except in possessing parti-coloured spines, which are comparatively short, Echidnas are utterly 
unlike Porcupines, having long, beak-like, toothless snouts, short, squat bodies, rudimentary tails 
and very stout limbs, armed with powerful claws for digging. In the large Bruijni’s Echidna of 
New Guinea the beak is much longer than in the typical species, while it is also nearly as much 
arched as that of a curlew. In this species, at any rate, when standing the body is elevated on the 
columnar legs in much the same fashion as that of an elephant. 
Echidnas, as mentioned in another article, are the sole living relatives of the platypus, and thus 
the only other mammals which lay eggs. In place of depositing her single egg at the end of a long 
burrow, like the platypus, the female Echidna carries it in a pouch developed on the under-side 
of her own body during the breeding season ; this pouch likewise forming a warm and snug nursery 
for the young. 
