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THE ORNITHORHYNCHUS PARADOXUS. 245 
of the river; but they eluded all the endeavours made to get a sufficiently near shot. 
I repeatedly heard a splash in the water at one particular part of the bank whenever I 
approached it, as if the animals had retreated to the land, but, unable to gain their 
burrow in time, had, on my approach, taken again to the water. As this occurred often 
about the same place, and as darkness was setting in rapidly, I marked the situation of 
the spot, and determined to examine it on the following day, and ascertain whether 
I was correct in my supposition. 
Our tawny friend Daraga remarked to me that it was of no use digging up burrows ! 
of Water-Moles now for ‘‘ pickaninny”, for ‘‘ none yet tumble down from mother”; but 
that further in the summer season, in rather “! more than one moon, plenty pickaninny 
tumble down from old woman.” It puzzled him, however, to form a conjecture why, 
with such abundance of cattle, sheep, &c., we wanted Mallangongs. 
On examining the cheek-pouches or the stomachs of these animals, I always ob- 
served the food to consist of river insects, very small shell-fish, &c., which were con- 
stantly found comminuted and mingled with mud or gravel: this latter might be re- 
quired to aid digestion, as I never observed the food unmingled with it. The natives 
say that they also feed on river-weeds ; but as I have never seen any of that descrip- 
tion of food in their pouches, I cannot confirm the correctness of the statement”. The 
young are fed at first by milk, and afterwards, when sufficiently old, by insects, &c., 
mingled with mud. ‘‘ All same you white feller,” said one of the blacks to me one 
day, when I asked him on what the young moles were fed by the ‘“‘ old women” ; 
** first have milliken, then make patta (eat) bread, yam,” &c. 
On the following morning, whilst the horses were saddling for a ride to Mount La- 
vinia, the farm and residence of Mr. O’Brien, on Yas Plains, we went down, accom- 
panied by the native Daraga, to that part of the river at which I had supposed the 
Water-Mole to have been attempting to escape into its burrow. I was right in my 
conjecture, for near the spot tracks of one of these animals were very distinctly visible, 
and we traced them up the bank, where, amongst some long grass, the entrance was 
discovered ; and further tracks having been discovered on the under surface of the in- 
terior, there was sufficient to determine its being an inhabited burrow; an opinion to 
which our black companion Daraga assented. The situation was one admirably calcu- 
lated for digging, as the bank gradually sloped, and was neither very high nor steep ; 
so I came to the determination to explore it. This was done, not with the expectation 
of meeting with any young, for my dissected specimens induced a contrary opinion, but 
from a desire of examining the internal construction of the burrows formed by these 
‘ The name by which the natives express the burrow or habitation of any animal is guniar ; and the same 
word is applied to our houses, being our habitations. 
2 Mr. George MacLeay informed me that he had shot some, in a part of the Wollondilly River, having river- 
weeds in their pouches; but he further observed that in that part of the river aquatic insects were yery 
scarce. 
2K2 
