354 



ORDER XII. MONOTREMATA. 



317. The peculiar characters by which this order is separated 

 from the preceding, have been already noticed ( 307) ; and it 

 now only remains, therefore, to describe the two remarkable ani- 

 mals, which are its sole representatives at present known. The 

 Ornithorhyncus or Duck-billed Platypus^ the Water Mole of the 

 Colonists, is peculiar not only in regard to its internal structure, 

 but as to its external aspect. For having the body of an Otter, 

 its muzzle is not conformed like that of any other Mammal, but 

 is converted into a bill, closely resembling that of a duck, being 

 broad, flat, and covered with a leathery membrane. This union 

 appeared so startling to the Naturalists by whom the stuffed 

 specimen of the animal was first inspected, that they imagined 

 that a clever deception must have been practised ; the bill of a 



FlG. 175 ORNITHORHYNCrs PARAPOXfS. 



Bird having been artificially attached to the skin of an Otter-like 

 Quadruped. This, however, was soon found not to be the case ; 



V 



