"On the New South Wales side of the river the eagle-hawk is sometimes so great a pest amongst the lambs that the settlers periodically burn him out by climbing close enough to the nest to put a fire-stick in contact with it."
<hw>Eagle-hawking</hw>, <i>n.</i> bush slang: plucking wool off dead sheep.
<hw>Eagle-Ray</hw>, <i>n.</i> name belonging to any large <i>Ray</i> of the family <i>Myliobatidae</i>; the New Zealand species is <i>Myliobatis nieuhofii</i>.
<hw>Eastralia</hw>, <i>n.</i> recent colloquial name, fashioned on the model of <i>Westralia</i> (q.v.), used in West Australia for the Eastern Colonies. In Adelaide, its application seems confined to New South Wales.
<hw>Ebony</hw>, <i>n.</i> a timber. The name is applied in Australia to two species of <i>Bauhinia</i>, <i>B. carronii</i>, F. v. M., and <i>B. hookeri</i>, F. v. M., N.O. Leguminosae. Both are called Queensland or Mountain Ebony.
<hw>Echidna</hw>, <i>n.</i> a fossorial Monotreme, in general appearance resembling a Porcupine, and often called <i>Spiny Ant-eater</i> or <i>Porcupine</i>, or <i>Porcupine Ant-eater</i>. The body is covered with thick fur from which stiff spines protrude; the muzzle is in the form of a long toothless beak; and the tongue is very long and extensile, and used largely for licking up ants; the feet are short, with strong claws adapted for burrowing. Like the Marsupials, the Echidna is provided with a pouch, but the animal is oviparous, usually laying two eggs at a time, which are carried about in the pouch until the young ones are hatched, when they are fed by a secretion from mammary glands, which do not, however, as in other mammals, open on to a nipple. The five-toed Echidnas (genus <i>Echidna</i>) are found in New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania, while the three-toed Echidnas (genus <i>Proechidna</i>) are confined to New Guinea. The species are—Common E., <i>Echidna aculeata</i>, Shaw; Bruijn's E., <i>Proechidna bruijni</i>, Peters and Doria; Black-spined E., <i>Proechidna nigro-aculeata</i>, Rothschild. The name is from Grk. <i>'echidna</i>, an adder or viper, from the shape of the long tongue.
1832. J. Bischoff, `Van Diemen's Land,' c. ii. p. 29:
"The native porcupine or echidna is not very common."
1843. J.Backhouse, `Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies,' p. 89:
"The Porcupine of this land, Echidna hystrix, is a squat species of ant-eater, with short quills among its hair: it conceals itself in the day time among dead timber in the hilly forests."