242 MR. G. BENNETT ON THE HISTORY AND HABITS OF 
On laying open the left uéerus it was found to contain two unattached ova, of a white 
colour, and of transparent appearance while left in the moisture of the uterus, but which 
became opake when dry: being covered by a dense membrane they could be handled 
and examined without any fear of injury. The parietes of the right uterus were also 
much distended and thickened, but on an examination of its interior it was found not 
to contain any eggs. 
In the second female shot this evening the left uterus was more distended than in the 
former specimens, and in the usual situation a fine cluster of ova, covered by a thin 
pellicle, was seen. The right uterus was much smaller, hardly appearing to be at all 
distended, and was destitute of ova. On laying open the left uterus it was found to 
contain a single ovum of the size of a buck-shot. 
The next morning (October 7), at Mr. Manton’s farm, I accompanied one of the 
aborigines called Daraga to the banks of the Yas River, to see the burrow of an Orni- 
thorhynchus, from which he told me the young had been taken last summer. I asked 
him, ‘‘ What for he dig up Mallangong ?”’ ‘‘ Murry budgeree patta” (very good to eat), 
was his reply. On arriving at the spot, which was situated on a steep bank about 
which long grass and various other herbaceous plants abounded, and close to the river, 
my guide, putting aside the long grass, displayed the entrance of the burrow, distant 
rather more than a foot from the water’s edge. In digging up this retreat the natives 
had not laid it entirely open, but had delved holes at certain distances, always intro- 
ducing a stick for the purpose of ascertaining the direction in which the burrow ran, 
previously to again digging down upon it. By this method they were enabled to ex- 
plore the whole extent of it with less labour than if it had been laid entirely open. The 
termination of the burrow was broader than any other part, nearly oval in form, and 
the bottom was strewed with dry river weeds, &c., a quantity of which still remained. 
From this place our sable friend said he had taken last season (December) three young 
ones, which were about 6 or 8 inches long, and covered with hair. The whole of the 
burrow was smooth, extending about 20 feet in a serpentine direction up the bank. 
I may here mention, that when a half-civilized young savage accompanied me one 
day in a search after Water-Moles’ burrows, he expressly cautioned me against putting 
my hand into the burrow: ‘‘ No put hand in, for he make smell hand.” The burrows 
have one entrance, usually about the distance of a foot from the water’s edge, and an- 
other under the water, communicating with the interior by an opening just within the 
upper entrance. It is no doubt by this entrance under the water that the animal seeks 
refuge within its burrow when it is seen to dive and not to rise again to the surface ; 
and when the poor hunted quadruped is unable to enter or escape from the burrow by 
the upper aperture, it makes a second effort by its river entrance. 
The search for asecond burrow near the first afforded me an opportunity of witnessing 
the means the aborigines adopt to track these animals. Our black zoological collector 
pointed out to me in the course of his peripatetic lecture, or rather demonstration of 
i ie 
Se 
