250 MR. G. BENNETT ON THE HISTORY AND HABITS OF 
I did not again open the box to look at the Ornithorhynchus until the following morn- 
ing, the 17th, at Mittagong, where we had arrived the previous night. The box had 
been placed as usual in my bed-room, but not hearing the usual scratching of the ani- 
mal, I had some apprehensions with regard to its safety, and on the morning following 
I found them correct, for the box was empty. There was every reason to suppose that 
its struggles had raised one of the battens which had not been fastened with sufficient 
firmness, and that it had escaped between Bong Bong and Mittagong. Had the animal 
died I should have had some consolation in dissecting it, but as it was, all my hopes 
were frustrated by its escape. 
Having thus failed in bringing the living female specimen to Sidney, I determined 
again to devote a portion of time, before the season became too far advanced, to the 
investigation of the habits and economy of this interesting animal. The success of my 
first journey excited me to fresh attempts with increased energy, to gain as much in- 
formation as possible respecting it. 
Knowing that I could ensure the kindness of the gentlemen who had before interested 
themselves in my investigation of this subject, I left Sidney on the 2nd, and Raby on 
the 8th of November, for the Yas, Murrumbidgee, and Tumat countries, with the inten- 
tion of continuing my observations on the same subject, as well as on other points of na- 
tural history or of professional interest that might occur in my way. After an agreeable 
journey by way of Goulburn Plains, I arrived at Mundoona on the 15th of November. 
The summer season had now advanced considerably in this part of the country. 
The river at Yas had fallen greatly, and the banks were covered by an increased 
luxuriance of high grass, towering reeds, and bull-rushes. The “‘ ponds” of the river 
where I had sought for and procured these animals were still, however, of sufficient 
depth for them. They were covered with floating aquatic plants, some of which had 
displayed their snow-white flowers, which floated on the surface of the water: the 
golden blossoms of the Acacia had faded and fallen, and had given place to the less gay 
but still pretty flowers of smaller and less conspicuous shrubs and plants. Yet about 
those spots where these animals had before been seen in such numbers, I paced the 
bank without seeing one. I felt anxious to ascertain in what state the females were, and 
how far advanced in the production of their young, or whether they had already brought 
them forth; but although evening after evening I sought their usual haunts, I was 
unable to procure, or even to be gratified with the sight of, a solitary specimen. I 
remarked that the situations where burrows of these animals were known to exist, had 
been selected by their instinct where the ponds of the river contained water even during 
the dry summer season, and when other parts of the river were nearly dry or formed at 
best a mere small trickling rivulet. Of course where the water remained the river- 
weeds flourished, and the flowers now produced by them probably attracted insects, 
which would furnish these animals with food, in addition to the minute shell-fish which 
might also be found about the plants, and on which they also feed. 
