LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



57 



the air-passage completely separated from the fau- 

 ces, and as the mother injects the milk the divided 

 stream passes, without the possibility of its " go- 

 ing the wrong way," on each side of the larynx 

 into the oesophagus and stomach.* 



It has been remarked, that the conveyance of 

 the fetus into the pouch is probably effected 

 by the mouth of the mother. The reasons for 

 this belief are well given by Professor Owen, who 

 observes, that, apart from the other circumstantial 

 evidence, this mode of transmission is consistent 

 with analogy, the mouth being always employed 

 by the ordinary quadrupeds dogs, cats, and 

 mice, for instance for the purpose of removing 

 their helpless offspring. The tender embryo 

 would be more liable to injury from the fore-paws ; 

 and these, from the absence of a thumb, could not 

 so securely effect the conveyance as the lips, 

 which can be opposed to each other. 



The advantages of such a vivarium as that be- 

 longifig to the Zoological Society of London in the 

 Regent's Park are here strongly manifested. Pro- 

 fessor Owen was enabled by his autopsy to correct 

 the error of Geoffrey St. Hilaire, (who had even 

 speculated on the anastomoses and distribution of 

 the continuous vessels, in the neck of the fcetus to 

 account for its junction with the maternal nipple,) 

 and to come to what may be deemed the safe con- 

 clusion as to the mode of the removal of the new- 

 ly-born foetus to the pouch, where it is probably 

 conducted to and held over a nipple by the mouth 

 of the mother, while the pouch is kept open by 

 her fore-paws, till she feels that her young one 

 has, with its lips, laid hold of the sensitive ex- 

 tremity of the organ from which it is to derive its 

 subsistence.! 



But to return to the Thylacines. 



They were so very shy and wild, that it was 

 some time before they could be turned into their 

 outer apartment while their sleeping-place was 

 being cleaned, without actual danger to them- 

 selves ; they threw themselves about so recklessly, 

 dashing themselves in their terror against the 

 walls and bars of their place of confinement. 

 When I saw them out they had a most wild and 

 scared appearance, and made haste to escape from 

 the light of day to the obscurity of their inner 

 den. 



The porcupine ant-eater, whose remains Mr. 

 Harris found in the stomach of his Thylacine, is 

 The hedge-hog of the Sydney colonists, and, to- 

 gether with the Ornithorhynchus, belongs to that 

 other anomalous tribe of quadrupeds to which 

 Geoffroy gave the apt name of Monotremes. In 



* Geoffrey first described this perfect contrivance ; but, 

 as Professor Owen observes, John Hunter seems to have 

 foreseen the necessity of it, and, indeed, as the professor 

 further remarks, there are evidences in Hunter's prepara- 

 tions in the museum of the college, that he had antici- 

 pated most of the anatomical discoveries which have sub- 

 sequently been made upon the embryo of the kangaroo. 



t See Professor Owen's admirable paper " On the Gen- 

 eration of the Marsupial Animals, with a Description of 

 the Impregnated Uterus of the Kangaroo." Phil. Trans. 

 1834. 



these the reptilian character still further prevails 

 mingled with that of birds. 



Though they have no pouch, they possess the 

 marsupial bones, which, however, play a very 

 different part in them from that assigned to those 

 bones in the kangaroo and true Marsupiata. 

 They have a clavicular bone placed more forward 

 than the normal clavicle, reminding the observer 

 of the furciform bone, or merry- thought in birds, 

 to which, indeed, it is analogous ; and the cora- 

 coid bone reaches the breast bone. Their eyes 

 are very little, and their ears are without any ex- 

 ternal appendage. 



Their mode of re-production was for a long 

 time considered doubtful ; some holding that they 

 laid eggs like the birds and reptiles, and others 

 that the young were brought forth alive. Those 

 who maintained the former theory relied upon 

 stories of nests, and eggs, and egg-shells having 

 been found ; but these stories, when subjected to 

 cross-examination, were generally found to bear a 

 very strong resemblance to that method of reason- 

 ing which ascribed the existence of the Goodwin 

 Sands to the building of Tenderden steeple. 



For example, one sees an ornithorhynchus come 

 from a bank, lands with his native, and finds at the 

 spot from whence the paradoxical animal had re- 

 treated a couple of eggs. The native tells the 

 white man that this is the Mallangong's* nest, and 

 that those are its eggs. The eggs are secured, and 

 triumphantly produced as conclusive evidence of 

 the oviparous nature of the animal. They prove 

 to be reticulated externally, and to those conver- 

 sant with the subject exhibit all the characters of 

 the eggs of a reptile, which may have been there 

 deposited by one of that class, and have been 

 visited by the ornithorhynchus for the purpose of 

 seasoning its insect diet with an omelette au nat- 

 urel. How many of these reptilian eggs the 

 ornithorhynchus may have swallowed before it 

 was disturbed does not appear. But we knovr 

 that the ornithorhynch burrows ; and is it probable 

 that, contrary to all the usual instincts that prompt 

 animals to conceal their nests, eggs, and young, 

 this creature should expose its eggs openly on the 

 bank instead of hiding them in its burrow, if, 

 indeed, it lays eggs at all? We know, too, that 

 each of these monotremes possesses a mammary 

 gland ; and the truth, in all probability,. is that the 

 eggs of the echidna and ornithorhynchus are 

 hatched internally, and that their young are 

 brought forth alive, as a viper produces hers. 



Such are these other extraordinary forms of 

 this extraordinary land. The first, the hedge-hog 

 of the colonists now become very rare in the 

 colony a toothless, terrestrial, burrowing animal, 

 living on ants, endowed with great strength, and 

 covered with spines. The second, a heteroclite, 

 with the fur of a mole, or, if you will, of a 

 water vole, a bill like a duck furnished with 

 what may be termed, for want of a better descrip- 



* Mallangong is the name given to this extraordinary 

 animal by the natives. 



