252 MR. G. BENNETT ON THE HISTORY AND HABITS OF 
account of the very flaccid integuments with which the animal is covered. The smaller 
glands were usually of a long narrow form, running in a longitudinal direction towards 
one centre, and ending internally in the lacteal ducts, (beautifully displayed by this 
specimen in its recent state,) which converged and terminated on the surface of a very 
small portion of the integuments. One of the glands measured 32 inches in length, 
and, when expanded, 53 inches in breadth; but when seen lying undissected upon the 
abdomen, with the lobes united together closely by the cellular membrane, the breadth 
was from 23 to 3 inches, and the length the same as that given above. 
How different was the appearance in the recent state of this mammary gland from 
that which I had previously seen at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, in a spe- 
cimen long preserved in spirits, in which I had had the opportunity of witnessing the 
injection of the ducts with mercury by my friend Mr. Owen, the mercury exuding, as I 
have since seen the milk from the similar ducts, upon the integuments. In the recent 
specimen, the pale whitish glands clustered together, seen through the fine delicate cel- 
lular membrane which attaches them to the muscles and integuments, and the rami- 
fication of the blood-vessels and of the delicate ducts, form a picture of natural beauty 
most gratifying to the eye of an admirer of the works of nature, and far surpassing any 
of the productions of art. 
I sought for the burrow of this animal about the banks of the pond in which it had 
been shot,—the same pond on the bank of which the burrow was discovered in which 
I caught the first living specimen,—but was unsuccessful. 
In the same pond at Mundoona, from which many female specimens had been pro- 
cured, two more females were shot; but both proved unimpregnated, with the uteri 
merely long thread-like tubes, destitute of ova, and with the abdominal glands hardly 
to be perceived on the most minute dissection of the parts. 
On the 8th of December I again left Yas for the Murrumbidgee and Tumat coun- 
tries: and near Jugiong an opportunity was afforded me of seeing a burrow on the 
banks of the Murrumbidgee River, containing some very young Ornithorhynchi, which 
appeared to have not long previously been brought forth, being only thinly covered 
with hair; a circumstance which corroborated the accounts of the natives in the Mur- 
rumbidgee and Tumat countries, who invariably told me, ‘‘ Pickaninny tumble down 
now from old woman; very small now.” In this burrow were three young ones, in 
length about 14 inch: there was not the slightest appearance of anything like shells 
about the burrow, or that would lead to the supposition of the eggs being excluded 
previously to the appearance of the young ; and I am inclined to consider all the facts 
that I have been able to ascertain as militating against an assertion or theory of that 
kind. From the burrow above mentioned the ‘‘ old woman” had made her escape ; at 
all events she was not to be found. I regret that from a want of spirits of wine, in 
which these animals could be preserved, (for they died before I had proceeded far on 
my journey,) they were spoiled. 
