222 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



shape, the bedroom is luxuriously carpeted with dry 

 water- weeds, roots, grass, etc. It has been suggested 

 that the little-used upper entrance acts mainly as a 

 ventilator to the burrow. Lieutenant the Hon. 

 Lauderdale Maule once took two young duckbill 

 and their mother from a nest on the Fish River. 

 The young ones were four inches long ; their 

 stomachs only contained coagulated milk no 

 worms, etc., were found, though they were carefully 

 examined with a lens. Individuals of this age 

 (fourteen days) have the beak very short and 

 provided with ample fleshy edges for sucking ; the 

 tongue extends well forward in the mouth, and the 

 lower jaw is very flexible. The situation of the eye 

 is merely indicated by a few furrows in the skin ; 

 the neck, body, limbs, and tail are all wrinkled. 



The duckbill is one of the few mammals that 

 lay eggs. The yolk is large as compared with the 

 embryo ; the shell is strong, flexible, and leathery. 

 Two eggs, about the size of a house-sparrow's, are 

 usually laid ; they are about three-quarters of an 

 inch long, and are deposited on the dry root-carpet 

 of the sleeping apartment. The female broods them 

 like a sitting hen, her body temperature, normally 

 below that of most other mammals, becoming raised 

 for the purpose. The young are at first naked, but 

 specimens that have attained a length of ten inches 

 are covered with handsome, sleek, unworn fur, soft, 

 bright, and almost white below. 



