Mr. Scott on the Ornithorhynchus Paradorus. 249 
egg; it sits on them a long time, and hatches them like a fowl; it 
will not forsake its nest by being disturbed ; it eats soft mud, but 
no grass or weed *, 
They have been caught on dry ground some distance from the 
river. 
When attacked the male strikes with his hind leg, which has a 
spur, (the female has none,) and the wound causes considerable 
swelling and pain, but no instance of death in consequence has 
been known. To cure the wound it is washed with cold water, 
and sucked by the natives, who call it mullongone. 
Mr. Hitz’s Lerrer. 
Dear Sir, Sydney, January 14, 1821, 
I have sent you the preparation of the female ornithorhynchus, 
properly corked and sealed ; and from the state of preparation it is 
nowin, Iam in hopes it will not require a change of spirits until 
your arrival in England: it would be well, however, to examine it 
occasionally on the voyage. 
It consists of the internal organs of generation, the urinary 
bladder, with part of the ureter attached, a small portion of the 
rectum, and the whole of the external parts. 
You will observe that the preparation shews: 
1. One common external orifice for the rectum, vagina, and 
urinary bladder, 
2. That the vagina, termination of the rectum, §c., remain un= 
examined. 
3. The urinary bladder. 
4. The junction of the fallopian tubes in one common canal, 
(behind the bladder,) but without any organ or cavity, like the 
uterus of viviparous animals: at their junction in this canal the 
tubes are of thicker consistence, approaching a cartilaginous feel, 
The urinary bladder, situated immediately before the common 
canal, must not be mistaken for the uterus. 
* Mr. Hill had caught and opened a male a few days before, and found 
the stomach full of mud, and very offensive. The female I had was quite 
empty, and not offensive, 
