186 MAMMALS

the duckmole has a beak like a duck; a coat like a
mole, a tail like a beaver, and sleeps rolled up like a
hedgehog. Their skulls are smooth and thin, and
coalesce, as is the case among the birds. They both lay
eggs, but the echidna hatches them in its pouch, while
the duckmole hatches them in a burrow. Both have
teeth to begin with—flat, saucer-like things—but they
wear them out at an early age and develop horny
plates in their stead.

There are three species of echidna, all of which
have five claws on each foot; and in New Guinea is
an allied form, Proechidna, which is larger and has
only three claws to each foot. One species of echidna,
F. Laweszz, is confined to New Guinea, the other two
range through Australia to Tasmania. Lawes’s
echidna, says Mr. Gill, ‘is distinguished from the
Australian species by having spines on the head
instead of hair, and by the rostrum or snout being
more elongated. In the north-western species the
snout is about three times the length of the head.
The echidna has no teeth, feeding on ants and other
insects, which it deposits in its mouth by means of a
long extensile tongue. Being a burrowing mammal,
it is furnished with limbs and curved claws of great
strength. The rapidity with which it disappears in
sandy ground is almost magical ’—the rapidity being
chiefly due to the peculiar position of the hind foot,
which is turned outwards and backwards, so that the
animal practically walks on its instep.

The echidnas spend their life on land, the duck-
mole spends most of his in the water. He burrows
like a vole, making long galleries from thirty to fifty