16 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



parent after the manner of the members of the above-named groups. The antiquity 

 of this monotrematous order is indicated by the circumstance that teeth most 

 closely resembling the temporarily developed ones of Ornithorhynclms have been met 

 with in association with certain obscure mammalian remains that occur as fossils in 

 the mesozoic strata of North America. 



The natural food habits of both the Ornithorhynchus and the Echidna are such 

 as to prevent them from becoming forms with which the British public can hope to 

 become very familiar in the living state. The Ornithorhynchus is essentially an aquatic 

 animal. It is for the most part, though not strictly, nocturnal, and dependant upon a 

 pabulum of worms, fish spawn, mollusca and aquatic insects that cannot be easily 

 supplied in a state of captivity. All efforts, so far, even in Australia, have failed to 

 keep it alive for more than a few weeks, and no attempts to bring it to Europe 

 have proved successful. The authority who has cultivated, and published an account of, 

 the most intimate acquaintanceship with the Ornithorhynchus is, undoubtedly, the late 

 Dr. George Bennett, of Sydney. In his well-known work, " The Gatherings of a 

 Naturalist," published in the year 1860, he has given a most interesting and widely- 

 quoted record of his extended experiences in the possession of numerous examples of 

 both young and adult individuals, neither of which, however, he was able to keep 

 alive for a long period. Dr. Bennett was also unsuccessful in solving that knotty 

 question relative to the reproductive phenomena of Ornithorhynchus, which had at this 

 earlier date already attracted the attention of many eminent naturalists, and which was 

 only set at rest in the year 1884 by the investigations of Mr. W. H. Caldwell, who 

 then, for the first time, incontestibly demonstrated that both this type, as well as the 

 Echidna, were oviparous mammalia. 



The Ornithorhynchus, or Duck-billed Platypus, has not fallen within the writer's 

 purview to an extent that enables him to place on record any new data concerning its 

 natural habits. At the salmon and trout-hatching establishment on the river Plenty, 

 in Tasmania, this interesting animal had, unfortunately, to be systematically destroyed 

 on account of its too strongly developed proclivities for dieting on the jealously 

 guarded ova of the Salmonidae. A wounded specimen, obtained from this source, which 

 survived for but a day or so, was the only living one that fell into the author's 

 possession. While investigating and reporting for the Victorian Government upon the 

 fish and fisheries of the Victorian section of the river Murray, in the neighbourhood of 

 Echuca, a well-authenticated instance was reported to the writer of a lad who, 

 incautiously holding a male Platypus that had become entangled in his father's nets, 



