THE DUCKBILLED PLATYPUS 223 



The duckbill was first noticed by Dr. Shaw 

 the describer of the apteryx or wingless bird of 

 New Zealand in the " Naturalist's Miscellany " for 

 1799. The first specimen of each was declared to 

 be a fraud ; naturalists would not allow that the beak 

 of the duckbill was really attached to the body until 

 the genuineness of the creature was established by 

 Sir Henry Holford. Shaw's original specimen of the 

 duckbill a young individual is now in the National 

 Collection, having been presented by Mr. R. Latham ; 

 the apteryx which he described in 1812 brought 

 over by Captain Barclay and then the only specimen 

 known is in the Derby Museum at Liverpool. "On 

 a subject so extraordinary as the present," observes 

 Dr. Shaw of the duckbill, " a degree of scepticism is 

 not only pardonable but laudable." Determined to 

 investigate the real character of the beak, Shaw 

 macerated it in water to render every part completely 

 movable, of course with satisfactory results. This 

 individual skin measured thirteen inches in extreme 

 length, the beak occupying an inch and a half ; the 

 palate had been removed. Two more specimens 

 sent by Governor Hunter to Sir Joseph Banks 

 during 1779-1801 confirmed the genuineness of 

 Shaw's specimen. In 1812 an ornithorhynchus was 

 exhibited in Mr. Bullock's Museum at the Egyptian 

 Hall ; probably it was one of the two sent to Sir 

 Joseph Banks, since that gentleman's name figures 

 amongst the donors to the museum. For a long time 



