very different idea of the animal from that which is obtained by the examination of stuffed 
skins. The beak is well supplied with nerves, and appears to be a sensitive organ of touch 
by means of which the animal is enabled to feel as well as to smell the insects and other 
creatures on which it feeds. 
The Mullingone is an essentially aquatic and burrowing animal, and is formed 
expressly for its residence in the water, or under the earth. The fur is thick, soft, and is 
readily dried while the animal enjoys good, health, although it becomes wet t and drageled 
when the creature is weakly. The opening of the ears is small and can be closed at will, 
and the feet are furnished with large and complete webs, extending beyond the claws in 
the fore limbs, and to their base in the hind legs. The fore-feet are employed for digging 
as well as for swimming, and are therefore armed with powerful claws rather more ‘than 
half an inch in length, and rounded at their extremities. With such force can these 
natural tools be used, that the Duck-bill has been seen to make a burrow two feet in length 
through hard gravelly soil in a space of ten minutes. While digging, the animal employ s 
its beak as well as its feet, and the webbed membrane contracts between the joints so as 
not to be seen. The hind-feet of the male are furnished with a spur, about an inch in 
length, curved, perforated, and connected with a gland situated near the ankle. It was once 
supposed that this spur conveyed a poisonous liquid into the wound which it made, but 
this opinion has been disproved by Dr. Bennett, who frequently permitted, and even forced 
the animal to wound him with its spurs, and experienced no ill consequences beyond the 
actual wound. The animal has the power of folding back the spur so as to conceal it 
entirely, and is then sometimes mistaken for a female. 
The colour of the adult animal is a soft dark brown, interspersed with a number of 
glistening points w hich are produced by the long and shining hairs which protrude 
through the imer fur. Upon the abdomen the fur is a light fawn, and even softer than 
on the back, The under surface of the tail is devoid of hair—denuded, as some think, in 
forming its habitation—and the upper surface is covered with stiff, bristly hairs, brown 
towards the base and quite black at the extremity. The first coat of the young Duck-bill 
is always a bright, reddish-brown. 
It can run on land and swim in water with equal ease, and is sufticiently active to be 
able to climb well. Some of the animals that were kept by Dr. Bennett were in the habit 
of ascending a perpendicular bookcase, performing this curious feat by placing their backs 
against the wall and the feet upon the shelves, and so pushing themselves upwards as a 
