THE DUCKBILLED PLATYPUS. 



" Then comes a quadruped as big as a large cat, with the 

 eyes, colour, and skin of a mole, and the bill and web-feet 

 of a duck, puzzling Dr. Shaw, and rendering the latter half 

 of his life miserable, from his utter inability to determine 

 whether it was a bird or a beast." 



Sidney Smith. 



This amusing description by a witty divine well 

 sums up the external characters of the extraordinary 

 duckbill or ornithorhynchus. Bat and hedgehog, 

 giraffe and okapi, great anteater and tree-kangaroo, 

 may well be instanced as singular creatures : but 

 amongst the monotrematous mammals echidnas, 

 proechidnas, and duckbill one finds natural marvels 

 equalling if not exceeding anything known amongst 

 the higher groups. 



The duckbilled platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus] 

 mullingong of the Australian natives measures 

 about nineteen inches in total length, and a good speci- 

 men weighs at least five pounds. The extraordinary 

 beak-like muzzle really does recall the bill of a duck ; 

 it is expanded and flattened, and during life is 

 bordered by a sensitive vascular membrane, though 

 after death this dries to a hard blackened skin. 

 The eyes are small and placed high on the head ; 

 the ears have no external conch ; the aural orifice 

 can be expanded and contracted by muscular action. 

 The mole-like body is depressed and oval ; the limbs 

 are strong and short ; the feet are expanded, and 



