314 MONOTREMATA. 



Leach, in his Zoological Miscellany, (Vol. II., p. 

 136,) also describes the Ornithorhynchus fuscus and 

 0. rufus as distinct ; the latter he says differs from 

 the former, not only in colour, hut in having the beak 

 narrower, the nostrils more terminal, the anterior 

 claws acuminate, (those of the 0. fuscus he describes 

 as linear and obtuse,) and the form of the hair of the 

 anterior part of the body, which has a much longer 

 club at its extremity. The differences in the position 

 of the nostrils and in the form of the claws, I do not 

 perceive in the specimens before me, and as regards 

 the beak, I have seen a rufous specimen in which 

 it was as broad as in those of the deeper brown 

 colour. 



Mr. Macgillivray describes two species of Orni- 

 thorhynchus in the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society 

 for 1832, (Vol. VI., p. 127,) under the specific names 

 crispus and Icevis, but these he afterwards (see p. 

 132) regards as mere varieties of O. paradoxus. 

 The description of 0. crispus given by this author 

 agrees with the animal described at the head of this 

 article, and the 0. Icevis is apparently the 0. rufus. 



Mr. Ogilby also describes an Ornithorhynchus 

 under the name brevirostris. See Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society for 1831, p. 150. The speci- 

 men upon which Mr. Ogilby founds his species is 

 now before me, and is one of the two reddish varieties 

 before alluded to. I think it possible the 0. fuscus 

 and 0. rufus will prove distinct, and if so, the syno- 

 nyms will be as follows : 



