12 TRICHOLOGIA MAMMALIUM; 



mystecetus,) is furnished, which is sometimes called his "beard" and, at others, his 

 "whiskers;" it is ihefanon of the French Naturalists, and the whalebone of commerce and 

 manufactures. We selected one of the natural fibres of this substance, of the diameter of 

 fa of an inch, and upon subjecting one ineh of it to the trichometer, it stretched about T | u 

 of an inch; which we supposed would be required to straighten it. We added to this 

 weight ten grains at a time, till it arrived at 373 grains, when, without obtaining any 

 further elongation, it broke. We therefore pronounce this article not to be hair. 



OF THE PILE OF THE ORNITHORYNCHUS. The animal whose pile bears the strongest 

 resemblance to a feather, is the Platypus Ornithorynchus. (See fig 6.) 



This animal belongs to the Order Monotremata. The specimen we examined was pre- 

 sented by H. Wheatland, Esq., of Salem, Massachusetts.* General appearance, upon first 

 view, coarse, dark brown, and very lustrous ; but when the external filaments are raised 

 or separated, that of an exuberant, plumbeous colored wool. The skin (in ours, which is 

 a dried specimen,) is coarse, thick and rough, on the inner side. The pile is set in the der- 

 mis in tufts. The integument is of two kinds, one of a finer quality, closely impacted, 

 and covering the epidermis like the wool of the fur-bearing animals; the other, which is 

 longer, having at its lower extremity a similar fine fibre which, near the centre, becomes 

 broad and flat, and lies loosely over, hiding the fine woolly portion. It resembles the ante- 

 rior termination of the ostrich feather. The length of the long hair is about ^ of an inch, 

 the inferior half of this integument has a diameter of ^^ of an inch; is composed 1st, 

 of a white cortex, marked with dark-colored, transverse, varying lines; 2d, a transparent 

 white substance, enclosing a multitude of black rings, of the diameter of T -fa-$ of an inch, 

 with interstices of the same dimensions. These black rings being too minute to be 

 discerned, separately, with the naked eye, blend color with the white interstices, and cause 

 this portion of the pile to appear to be plumbeous. 



Between this part and the one next to be described, is a neck of the length of T J^, and 

 diameter of ^-fa-jf of an inch; it is white, and encloses a dark coloring matter in elongated 

 spots. 



From this neck the shaft gradually widens to the -$%$ of an inch, and then gradually 

 tapers again to the apex, where it is only -j-aW of an inch. This portion is dark brown 

 colored, and very lustrous; it is composed of a white cortex, with a disseminated coloring 

 matter. In the centre is a darker colored spire, composed of a series of capsules, resem- 

 bling those found in the interior of the cylinder of a feather. Their diameter is yaVo f 

 an inch. They do not continue the whole length of this broad portion of the shaft ; but 

 commence at the distance of -gfa of an inch from the neck, and terminate at about T ^ T5 - 

 from the apex. This last portion is colorless. 



Shape of the fine portion, cylindrical ; that of the flat and coarse part, lenticular, $%-% by 

 y^-g of an inch in diameter. There is no button, but there is a shaft to this pile. 



The second kind of pile upon this animal resembles the posterior portion of the first one, 



* See note marked a, at the end of Chapter I., Part I. 



