150 On the Egg of the Ornithorynchus. 



tion of the gi-oup of Monotremata, comprehending the Echidnce 

 and Ormthorynchi. Most naturaUsts refer these singular animals 

 to the class of mammifera, and consider them as viviparous. M. 

 GeofFroy St Hilaire, however, has always believed these animals 

 to be oviparous, and to constitute of themselves a fifth class, en- 

 tirely different from the mammifera. For a moment, however, 

 the question seemed to be decided against him. M. Meckel 

 imagined that he had found mammae in the ornithorynchus, 

 and described the texture of these organs. M. St Hilaire, 

 however, maintains, that, notwithstanding M. Meckel's ability as 

 an anatomist, he had been deceived on this point, and that what 

 he had taken for mammae was something else. When this in- 

 formation reached us, we wrote to an intelligent friend on the 

 subject, and the following is his answer to our queries : — 



" Yoiir informer probable goes too far, when he says that I 

 have seen and examined the egg of an Ornithorynchus. I have 

 examined the shells of two eggs in the possession of Mr Lead- 

 beater here, and brought from New Holland as those of the Orni- 

 thorynchus. You are aware that M. Murdoch, and other tra- 

 vellers, have maintained that they have seen the eggs of this 

 animal, and that Mr Hill declared, that, in dissecting a female, 

 he found a small yellow egg in the left ovary. GeofFroy St 

 Hilaire has lately confuted the details of Meckel about the 

 mammary glands, and considers these organs of the Ornitho- 

 rynchus as of the same nature with the odoi'ous glands of the 

 squirrels. The day before I left Paris, in September last, that 

 venerable anatomist mentioned to me, that he was perfectly con- 

 vinced that the ornithorynchus is a true oviparous reptile^ from 

 his examination of its structure, and particularly from its organs 

 of generation. As you might expect, GeofFroy St Hilaire felt 

 a deep interest in my news about the eggs at present exhibited 

 in London and Manchester, as those of this animal, and he en- 

 treated me to send him soon whatever information I could ob- 

 tain regarding them, or to procure for him a specimen. 



•• Two of these egg3 are in the possession of Mr Leadbeater, 

 F. L. S. of Brewer Street here, and two are preserved in the 

 Museum of Manchester, as I am informed by him. The whole 

 four were brought from New Holland by Holmes, a collector 



