228 VICTORIA. NEW SOUTH WALES. 



or his looking 'on at the game : nor, though I offered a good 

 price for a boomerang, did any one care to fetch one from the 

 village. 



ORNITHORHYNCHUS PARADOXUS. 



Down by the river bank I found a Black camped by a fire, 

 with three women, and a lot of mongrel curs. He was just 

 going to fish. He had a gun, and was much excited at the 

 notion of " three half-a-crown " for ?i Platypus. We crept along 

 the bank of the river, the Black first, then I, then my companion. 

 The Black went stealthily along, with his head stretched forward, 

 and every muscle tense, stepping with the utmost care, so as 

 not to rustle a twig or break a stick under foot, and assuming a 

 peculiarly wild animal appearance, such somewhat as 1 had 

 noticed in a Tamil guide of mine in Ceylon when we were 

 hunting for peacocks and deer. Once he started back, as a 

 snake made off through the bushes. 



It was all to no purpose. I was doomed not to see a living 

 Platypus or even a Kangaroo in Australia. I saw only the 

 footprints of the Platypus (like those of a duck), which the 

 Black pointed out to me, in a regularly beaten track, made by 

 the animals from one pond to another. The Black said that 

 he was certain the Platypus did not lay eggs, and that he had 

 several times seen the young ones, and his description of them 

 agreed with what I knew from Dr. Bennett's researches on the 

 subject. 



Next day, as I was going down in the coach, I received two 

 specimens of the Platypus, shot by this man. Unfortunately, 

 the jolting and heat of the coach, on the journey down to the 

 coast, rather spoilt them for microscopical examination, for which 

 I had washed to procure them. I wished especially to examine 

 the eyes, to see if the retina contains brightly pigmented bodies, 

 as in the case of reptiles and birds. I could not find any trace 

 of them ; but possibly, if the tissues had been fresher, I should 

 have met with them, for Hoffman has discovered their 

 existence in marsupials. 



