CHAPTER XVI 

 ORDER OF EGG-LAYING MAMMALS 



MONOTREMATA 



'" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 

 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 



THERE are two Families of mammals the members of 

 which lay eggs, from which their young are hatched as 

 are those of birds. They form the lowest order of mammals, 

 and in one respect this group forms a good connecting link 

 between mammals and birds: 



Order Monotremata 

 egg-layers 



EXAMPLES 



Duck-Bill Or-ni-tho-rhyn'chi-dae I The Ornithorhyncus, 



J \ or Duck-Bill. 



Echidnas Tach-y-glos'si-dae / Five-Toed Echidna. 



{ Three-Toed Echidna. 



The Platypus, or Duck-Bill, 1 is found only in Australia, 

 — a land of queer things. Not only is it bird-like in laying eggs, 

 but it also possesses webbed feet, and a flat, duck-like bill, 

 from which it derives one of its popidar names. The beak is 

 of black horn, and the food is crushed between the cross- 

 ridge plates of the lower jaw and the roof of the mouth. 



1 Or-ni-tho-rhyn'ckus an-a-ti'nus. 

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