Gerard Krefft says that they are usually found in mountain ranges,
and among rocks in the Lower Murray district. He failed to feed them
on Ants and their eggs. On hen’s eggs they fed for a time, and liked
bread-and-milk. He has reason to believe that they live on grass also,
as those whose stomachs and intestines he examined had fed on herbs and
grasses. The spur on the heel is not used as a weapon of offence.
It inhabits Australia, and has been found as far north as the Bellenden
Plains, Queensland, about 18° south latitude. A specimen has also been
captured at Cape York, and others at Plain Creek, Queensland. It is not
found in Van Diemen’s Land.
With regard to the anatomy of the Echidna, it may be said that the long
muzzle and the very slender lower jaw give the skull a bird-like look
which is increased by the swollen and ball shape of the brain-case. The
bones of the skull remain imperfectly united for some time, and then
they are united by plain lines of junction, and not by jagged sutures.
The shoulder and the bones of the upper part of the chest resemble
those of the Water Mole, and will be noticed in its description. The
brain of the Echidna weighs about one-fiftieth of the whole body,
and the hemispheres do not conceal the cerebellum. There are three
convolutions behind, and in front of them is a large one bent on
itself, and on its outside are some oblique folds. The sense of smell,
evidently acute in the Echidna, is assisted by a large development of
the olfactory lobes of the brain and their nerves.
The Echidnas have large marsupial bones. They have not a true pouch,
but only a rudimentary one, or rather an infolding of the skin,
during the breeding season, in the female. The orifices of the teats
are situated beneath the level of the skin, and inverted; and as the
surrounding parts swell under the influence of suckling, there is a
little cavity made, at the bottom of which are the so-called nipples.
They are really little depressions with hair around them. The young
Echidnas are placed in this temporary cavity by the mother, and help
themselves by placing their snouts in the small depressions leading to
the milk gland. Captain Armit says that some force is required to get
the young out of the pouch, and that there is probably a muscular ring
to it. They are at first very small. When about a month or so old, the
hinder parts of the young may be seen sticking out of the region of the
fold, and at three months the body may be observed, the animal still
adhering by its snout. When the prickles of the young begin to harden,
the old one turns them out into the world. (But see Postscript, p. 234.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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