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THE ORNITHORHYNCHUS, PLATYPUS, OR WATER-MOLE. 



(Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, Blum.) * 



This extraordinary creature frequents the rivers of Australia, 

 and is found abundantly both in New Holland and in Van 

 Dieman's Land. 



The structure of the ornithorhynchus is so anomalous that 

 Shaw, who was the first to describe it, and from the only 

 specimen then known, hesitated whether to introduce it into that 

 portion of his General Zoology which contains the mammals ; 



specimens of the Van Dieman's Land species (P. CooMi"), for Temminck says 

 they were derived from the voyage of Labillardiere, who did not visit the east 

 coast of New Holland at all ; while Desmarest says they were brought home 

 by Peron and Lesueur, who touched at no part of that coast, except Port 

 Jackson ; but both expeditions visited Adventure Bay, where the latter species 

 was discovered during Cook's third voyage. One specimen in the Paris 

 Museum, brought home by M. Gaimard, has been referred to by Temminck 

 as having been procured from the island of Rawak, one of the Moluccas ; but 

 this error has been corrected by M. Lesson, who after giving Van Dieman's 

 Land as the habitat of the species, expressly states (Diet. Class. d'Histoire 

 Naturelle, 13), that the particular specimen was obtained alive at Port Jackson. 



Mr. J. E. Gray declares that the animal which Frederic Cuvier has 

 described and figured as Phalangista, or Petaurus CooMi in his Mammiferes, 

 and in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, belongs to a species very 

 different from either that or P. BanJcsii. 



* Cuvier considered the Ornithorhynchus and the Echidna as belonging to 

 the order EDENTATA, in which he accordingly placed them as his third 

 tribe called MONOTREMATA. Temminck, before him, considered both the 



