VICTORIA. 263 



for a boomerang, did any one care to fetch one from the 

 village. 



ORXITHORYXOHUS PARADOXIC. 



Down by the river bank I found a Black camped by a fire, 

 with three women, and a lot of mongrel curs. He was just 

 going to fish. He had a 21m. and was much excited at the 

 notion of " three half-a-crown " for a Platypus. We crept along 

 the bank of the river, the Black first, then I, then my companion. 

 The Black went stealthily along, with his head stretched forward, 

 and every muscle tense, stepping with the utmost care, so as not 

 to rustle a twig or break a stick under foot, and assuming a 

 peculiarly wild animal appearance, such somewhat as I had 

 noticed in a Tamil guide of mine in Ceylon when we were 

 hunting for peacocks and deer. Once he started back, as a 

 snake made off through the bushes. 



It was all to no purpose. I was doomed not to see a living 

 Platypus or even a Kangaroo in Australia. I saw only the 

 footprints of the Platypus (like those of a duck), which the Black 

 pointed out to me, in a regularly beaten track, made by the 

 animals from one pond to another. The Black said that he was 

 certain the Platypus did not lay eggs, and that he had several 

 times seen the young ones, and his description of them agreed 

 with what I knew from Dr. Bennett's researches on the subject. 



Next clay, as I was going down in the coach, I received two 

 specimens of the Platypus, shot by this man. Unfortunately, 

 the jolting and heat of the coach, on the journey down to the 

 coast, rather spoilt them for microscopical examination, for 

 which I had wished to procure them. I wished especially to 

 examine the eyes, to see if the retina contains brightly pigmented 

 bodies, as in the case of reptiles and birds. I could not find any 



