668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



then to get all stages in the growth of Ceratodus in a few weeks, and to try for 

 the duck-moles again in December about the Snowy River in the extreme south 

 of New South Wales. But it was not until the end of November that I got 

 away. I could not succeed for a long time in rearing the larvae (tadpoles) of 

 the Ceratodus after they were hatched. At last I succeeded, and have now I 

 believe every stage preserved. I have now in my laboratory in Sydney some 

 young living specimens reared from the eggs under my eyes. 



Is it not extraordinary that Echidna has not learned to contain her egg in 

 the uterus a little longer? The plan of laying it only to carry it in a pouch is 

 an awkward habit that might be so easily reformed. The dnck-mole has two 

 eggs at a time. The papers here have copied from " Nature " a notice about my 

 work, and mention an old paper by Geoffroy St.-Hilaire where Platypus (duck- 

 mole) eggs are figured. These eggs, however, happen not to be duck-mole's 

 eggs at all. St.-llilaire obtained them from bushmen who found them in the 

 Hawkesbury River. They were eggs of the common river-turtle, as is clear from 

 the figures. The duck-mole's egg is one quarter of their size. ... I am at 

 present in the northwestern district of New South Wales up the Mclntyre 

 Eiver collecting the embryos of marsupials (kangaroos, etc.). I have bought 

 a light buggy, and move about from station to station in search of kangaroo- 

 drives. The kangaroos have decreased in number, owing to the drought in the 

 last few years, and the place I am in now is, I believe, almost the only one 

 where it is still possible to get a thousand kangaroos into a "yard " in one day. 

 "Yarding" has been generally superseded by shooting. A camp of kangaroo- 

 shooters will travel about on a run for months, being paid so much a scalp. It 

 is very slow work collecting embryos with these shooting-parties, and, besides 

 this, the embryos are too delicate to be carried on horseback. Accordingly, I 

 have tried hard to get to a yarding-drive where I could put up a table and do 

 all the preserving in one place. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday next 

 week the whole district is going to muster to drive kangaroos into a pit, and we 

 hope to get five thousand. My plans after this are pretty well settled. I have 

 made up my mind to stay out until another season is over. I go after "native 

 cats" in March and April, opossums in April and May in the south of New 

 South Wales. In June I shall get emu on the western downs of Queensland, 

 two hundred miles west of Roma. In July and August I shall have a camp of 

 one or two hundred blacks on the Burnett Eiver. At the end of August and 

 September I shall camp with some white shooters on the rivers near where I 

 am now (the Dumeresq, Mclntyre, Mole, and Severn). In November I shall 

 see you in London. I shall send you a description of some of the important 

 features in the early growth of the young in the egg of the duck-mole and 

 the Echidna when I get down to Sydney. I shall have no time to make 

 sections until I have brought my material safely home to England. Nine- 

 teenth Century. 



THE PRIMITIVE GHOST AND HIS RELATIONS. 



By JAMES G. FEAZEK. 



N his " Roman Questions," that delightful storehouse of old-world 

 lore, Plutarch asks, " When a man who has been falsely reported 

 to have died abroad returns home alive, why is he not admitted by 

 the door, but gets up on the tiles, and so lets himself down into the 



I 



