ECHIDNA

(é-kid’na), a genus of Australian toothle mammals, ) AN? as WY ) fee! Church law are made by Parliament. |: «. 4 Laymen can be, and often are, officials of the ecclesiastical courts. The civil law is subject to the canon law, above which is the common law, with, yet higher, statute law. Over all is the nominal supremacy of the Crown. Tcelesiastical law deals with such affairs and property of the Church of England as ecclesiastical parishes, churches, and matters matrimonial; but only so far as these are not controlled by common or statute law. It has long ceased to have any practical control of the laity. In Ireland, ecclesiastical law size aud general appearance resembling a large hedgehog, excepting that the spines are longer aud the muzzle is protracted and slender, with a 46 ECH I NO CACTUS small aperture at the extremity for the protraction of a long flexible tongue. The habits of the Echidna are nocturnal; it burrows, having short strong legs with five toes, and feeds on insects, which it catches by protruding its long sticky tongue. it is nearly allied to the Ornithorhynchus, the two forming a peculiar cla of animals, having in their structure some peculiarities at once of mammals, birds and reptiles. In 1884 it was found that, as Geofirey St. Hilaire had suspected, the Echidna, the closely related Pro echidna of New Guinea, and the Ornithorhynchus constitute the lowest sub-cla of mammals, the Prot other i a or Monotremata, which present many reptilian characters. They po e a eloaca into which the intestine and urinogenital ducts open and are eviparous. During the _ breeding season a temporary pouch is formed, and into this the milk-glands open, but there are no teats. The egg when laid is put into the pouch by the mother, and is there hatched in a@ very immature state. It feeds by licking up the milk in the pouch. Later on, the mother digs a burrow, where she leaves the young at night, returning during the day to suckle it. One species (H. hystrix), from its appearance is popularly known as the porcupine ant-eater.