THE ORNITHORHYNCHUS. 



for " it was," he says, " impossible not to entertain some doubts 

 as to the genuine nature of the animal, and to surmise that, 

 though in appearance perfectly natural, there might still have 

 been practised some arts of deception in its structure," An 

 animal exhibiting the beak of a duck engrafted on the head of 

 a quadruped, might well excite suspicions of imposture, till its 

 claim to be received as a genuine production of nature was con- 

 firmed by the arrival of other specimens from the same locality. 



It is indeed a paradox for while its general appearance, its 

 hairy fur, and many of its anatomical characteristics, prove its 

 claim to be ranked amongst the mammals - } its want of bony 

 teeth, the singular formation of its duck-like bill, and the great 

 development of its webbed feet, seem to ally it to the aquatic 

 birds j yet in its mode of generation it resembles the reptiles. 



Its length, from the end of the beak to the end of the tail, 

 varies, in full-grown specimens, from sixteen to twenty-three 

 or twenty-four inches j the male is usually a trifle larger than 

 the female. The head is rather depressed horizontally, as also is 

 the body, which seems to combine the characters of the otter, 

 the beaver, and the mole. It resembles the two former, as well 

 as other amphibious mammals, in the possession of two kinds 

 of fur j the body being covered with long silky hairs of a dark- 

 brown colour approaching to black, and emerging from an 

 undergrowth of very fine soft greyish fur, which is thicker and 

 softer on the belly of the animal. The eyes are of a light brown 

 colour, very small, but brilliant, and placed rather backward 3 



MONOTREMATA and the ordinary MARSUPIALIA as distinct orders, equi- 

 valent to other groups of the same rank and denomination. Mr. W. Ogilby, 

 regarding the existence of the marsupial bones to be the simple and only 

 unexceptionable character of the order MARSUPIALIA, prefers considering 

 the MONOTREMATA as a subordinate group or family of that order, rather 

 than elevating them to an independent and equal rank, or associating them 

 with a different order. It is true indeed that, strictly speaking, they come 

 equally within the definition of the order EDENTATA, but if approximated 

 to this order, rather than to the other MARSUPIALIA, the integrity and 

 logical simplicity of the latter order is destroyed ; for these, as already 

 observed, depend, not upon the existence of the abdominal pouch, which is 

 not present in all its species, but properly upon that of the marsupial bones. 



