THE ORNITHORHYNCHUS PARADOXUS. 257 
the water in the midst of their gambols ; and would afterwards retire, when tired, to the 
turf, where they would lie combing themselves. It was most ludicrous to observe these 
uncouth-looking little beasts running about, overturning and seizing one another with 
their mandibles, and then in the midst of their fun and frolic coolly inclining to one 
side and scratching themselves in the gentlest manner imaginable. After the cleaning 
operation was concluded, they would perambulate the room for a short time, and then 
seek repose. They seldom remained longer than 10 or 15 minutes in the water at a 
time. 
At first I was inclined to consider them as nocturnal animals, but I afterwards found 
that their time of leaving their resting-place was exceedingly irregular, both during the 
day and night. They seemed, however, more lively and more disposed to ramble about 
the room after dark, generally commencing about dusk ; but all their movements in 
this respect were so very irregular that no just conclusions could be drawn, further 
than that they were both night and day animals, preferring the cool and dusky even- 
ing to the heat and glare of noon. This habit was not confined to the young speci- 
mens, for the old ones were equally irregular, sometimes sleeping all day and becoming 
lively at night, and sometimes the reverse. I have often found one asleep and the other 
running about at the same period of the day, the male alone first leaving the nest and 
the female remaining asleep: he would, after feeding and running about for a short 
time, return, curl himself up, and sleep, and then the female would leave in her turn. 
Although, however, they frequently left thus alternately, at other times they would 
suddenly go out together. One evening, when both were running about, the female 
uttered a squeaking noise as if calling to her companion, which was in some part of the 
room behind the furniture, and was invisible ; he immediately answered her in a similar 
note ; and noting the direction from which the answer to her signal came, she ran at 
once to the place where he had secreted himself. 
It was very ludicrous to see the uncouth little animals open their mandible-like lips 
and yawn, stretching out the fore paws, and extending the webs of the fore feet to 
their utmost expansion. 
It often surprised me how they contrived to reach the summit of a bookcase or any 
other elevated piece of furniture. This was at last discovered to be effected by the 
animal supporting its back against the wall, and placing the feet against the bookcase, 
and thus, by means of the strong cutaneous muscles of the back and the claws of the 
feet, contriving to reach the top very expeditiously. They performed this mode of 
climbing often, so that I had frequent opportunities of witnessing the manner in which 
it was done. 
The food I gave them was bread soaked in water, chopped egg, and meat minced very 
small : although at first I presented them with milk, they did not seem to prefer it 
to water. 
Some time after my arrival at Sidney, to my great regret, the little creatures became 
