One echidna, called the tachyglossus of Van Dieman’s land, eats grass and tender leaves as well as insects. It lives less among rocks, as it is very fond of burrowing. This specimen of the echidna is a marvellous digger. If disturbed it begins to make a great tearing of earth with its five-toed feet, and sinks out of sight almost as if it went down in water. Perhaps you have seen a crab perform this feat, keeping its eyes fixed on you until, presto! it has vanished as if by enchantment.[60] The echidna, like its relatives, is a milk-giving, egg-laying animal. Only one egg is laid at a time, and that is very small. The egg is tucked into a fold of the mother’s skin, not a pouch such as the marsupials have, but a long fold. Here it is kept warm until it hatches. Until it has attained over one-third of its growth the mother nourishes the young creature with milk. The Echidnidæ have all very quick tongues, which dart in and out of their tube-like mouths rapid as the play of a snake’s forked tongue. Their mouths are very soft and delicate, and in burrowing the nose is carefully shielded, while the claw-armed fore-feet do most of the work. Owing to the quick movements of the tongue some naturalists have abandoned the name echidna, which refers to the thorny coat, and give the name tachy-glossus, “quick-tongued,” to the entire family. FOOTNOTES: [57] See Nature Reader, No. 2, Lesson 40. [58] Nature Reader, No. 2, Lesson 2. [59] Cows fed entirely on grain and roots will gnaw at fence-posts and palings in an effort to get the woody, coarse substance supplied by coarse grass stems in their ordinary hay food. [60] Nature Reader, No. 1, Lessons 1-5. LESSON XXIX. A WALK AMONG WONDER TREES. “The groves of Eden, vanished now so long, Live in description and look green in song. These, were my breast inspired with equal flame, Like them in beauty, should be like in fame.” --POPE. We know that vegetable life has accompanied and probably preceded all animal life. The long successions of animal existences have been attended in their march through time by an equally long succession of plants. All those ancient and wonderful living creatures which we have noted have been and are now matched by equally wonderful vegetable organisms. [Illustration: BEFORE BLOSSOMS.] A few of the wonderful plants of the world we now propose to set as in a garden, and walk forth among them in fancy, and note their marvels. Come then, let us take a walk among wonder trees. Who is there that enjoys the strange, the unique, the rare, the grand in nature? Let him come and walk slowly through this wonder grove with us, and his passion for the strange and the unexpected may be satisfied.