148 



reappear, ihat a fair shot at them can be obtained. A near shot is 

 absolutely reąuisite ; and \vhen wounded they usually sink immedi' 

 ately, but ąuickly reappear on tlie surface. 



A malė specimen was shot, and brought out by the dog, on the 

 following morning. In a few minutes it revived, and ran along the 

 ground, instinctively endeavouring to regain the water, but dld not 

 survive more than twenty-five minutes. On this individual Mr. G. 

 Bennett made various experiments, ^vitb the vie\v of ascertaining 

 the truth of the reports so extensively circulated of the injurioua 

 effects resulting from \vounds iaflicted by the spur. In no \vay, 

 however, could he iuduce the animal to make use of its spurs as 

 \veapons of ofFence ; although in its struggles to escape, his hands 

 Avere slightly scratched by the hind claws, and even, in consequence 

 of the position in ■vvhich he held it, by the spur also. The result of 

 several subsequent repetitions of the experiment with animals not 

 in a wounded statė was the šame. The natives, too, never seem fear- 

 ful of handling the malė Oniithorhynchiis alive. 



On the evening of the šame day a female Avas shot, which died 

 almost immediately on being taken out of the Avater. In this speci- 

 men the mammary glands \vere scarcely observable on dissection ; 

 but the left uterus was found to contain three loose ova of the size 

 of swan-shot. The right uterus ■vi'as less enlarged, exhibited less 

 vascularity, and contained no ova. Preparations of the generative 

 organs of this individual, and of t\vo other impregnated females 

 ■\vhich \vere subseąuently obtained, -vvere forwarded by the autlior to 

 Mr. 0\ven, by whom they have been particularly described in the 

 ' Philosophical Transactions' for 1834, j). 555. 



The next day three other specimens Avere shot : a malė and two 

 females. In the former the testes were found not to be larger than 

 very small peas, and the šame fact vvas observed in a specimen after- 

 wards shot in the Murrumbidgee ; -vv-hereas in that first obtfiined, 

 they vi'ere nearly of the size of pigeons' eggs. For this difFerence 

 at the šame season it seems difficult to account. The Icft uterus 

 of one of the females was found to contain two ova, and that of the 

 other a single ovum, of the size of buck-shot. As before, no ova 

 •were found in the right uterus. 



On the morning of the 7th of October, Mr. G. Bennett pro- 

 ceeded, in company with a native, to the banlvs of the river to see 

 the burrow of an Ornilhorhjnchus, from which the natives had taken 

 the young during the previous summer. The burrovv \vas situated 

 on a steep part of the bank ; and its entrance, concealed among the 

 long grass and other plants, \vas distant rather more than a foot 

 from the ■water's edge. Its Avliole extent Avas not laid open, the 

 natives contenting themselves \vith digging doun upon it at stated 

 distances, their operations being guided by the introduction into 

 the burro\v of a stiek which indicated its dircction. It took a 

 serpentine course, and measured about t\venty feet in length : the 

 tennination was broader than any other part, nearly oval in form, 

 and stre\vcd \vith dry river- wceds, &c. From this nešt the native 

 stated that he had taken in the previous season (December) three 



