68 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



it. When he knows where to look for an animal, and how to 

 kill it, he has reached the limit of his education, and never troub- 

 les his brain about any branch of learning which does not assist 

 him in procuring something to eat. 



In accordance with this principle, Dr. Bennett found that the 

 native Australians were admirable assistants and safe guides up 

 to a certain extent. They could discover the hidden burrows 

 of the Duckbill with instinctive certainty, and could then dig out 

 the animal with their pointed sticks faster than the Europeans 

 with their spades. They knew, moreover, that the burrow had a 

 very evil savor, as is the case with many burrows, and cautioned 

 Dr. Bennett not to thrust his hand into the tunnel, because " he 

 make smell hand." But in all points of abstract natural history, 

 they were totally at fault. 



They did not agree as to the domestic economy of the Duck- 

 bill, and were not at all sure whether the young were born alive 

 or hatched from eggs. Some advocated the latter opinion, and 

 said that "old woman have eggs, there in so many days;" but 

 their ideas of the eggs in question were exceedingly vague, oval 

 and spherical eggs being equally declared to belong to the Duck- 

 bill. Others rejected the egg theory. " Bel cam bango (no egg)," 

 said they, " tumble down ; pickaninny tumble down." And, as 

 if to show the value of inductive reasoning, it more than once 

 happened that when the natives positively averred that the 

 Duckbill could not possibly be hidden in certain localities, Dr. 

 Bennett conjectured that she was very likely to be there, and 

 succeeded in finding her in the very spot which he had pointed 

 out. 



On looking at a living Duckbill, few would set it down as an 

 excavator of the soil ; yet it is a burrower, and makes tunnels 

 of great length and some complexity. The soft broad membrane 

 that extends beyond the claws while the animal is walking or 

 swimming, and in the latter case forms a paddle by which the 

 creature can propel itself swiftly through the water, falls back 

 when the foot is employed for digging, and aids the animal in 

 flinging back the soil which its claws have^ scraped away. The 

 rotund body is admirably adapted for traversing the burrows, 

 though the stuffed specimens which generally are seen in mu- 

 seums give but little idea of such capability. As a general rule, 

 these stuffed specimens are much too long, too stiff, too straight, 

 too flat, and too shriveled. During life, the body is round, and 



