THE ORNITHORHYNCHUS. 



and gradually rising above its highest watermark. At the 

 distance of some few yards from the river's edge, this passage 

 branches into two others, which, describing each a circular 

 course to the right and left, unite again in the nest itself, 

 which is a roomy excavation [large enough to contain the 

 mother and three or four young ones], seldom more than 

 twelve yards from the water, or less than two feet beneath the 

 surface of the earth." The entrance to the burrow is so placed 

 as to be concealed from observation by surrounding grass, 

 weeds, and shrubs ; and as no heaps of earth are found near 

 it, Mr. Bennett thinks it not improbable that the animal carries 

 away the loose mould collected during the process of excavation, 

 in order that it may not indicate the situation of the burrow. 



For a long time it was a question, whether the ornithor- 

 hynchus was an oviparous or an ovo -viviparous animal j that 

 is to say, whether it laid eggs from which young were after- 

 wards hatched, as in the case of birds, or whether it propa- 

 gated by eggs which were retained and hatched within the 

 body, as in the case of the common viper and some other 

 reptiles. That it did not produce its young in the way that 

 mammals ordinarily do, was generally admitted by all zoolo- 

 gists ; but they were not agreed as to which of these modes 

 of proceeding was the one it pursued. In the spring of 1831, 

 Lieutenant Maule, being in New South Wales, took some pains 

 to discover the truth of the more generally accepted belief, that 

 the female lays eggs, and suckles its young. He tells us that 

 with considerable labour and difficulty several nests were dis- 

 covered in the banks of the Fish River, a mountain stream, 

 abounding with these shy and curious animals. " No eggs," 

 he says, " were found in a perfect state, but pieces of a sub- 

 stance resembling egg-shell were picked out of the debris of 

 the nests. But in the insides of several females which were 

 shot, eggs were found of the size of a large musket ball, and 

 some less, and without the hard outer shell. 



An old female, which lived in captivity with a young one, 

 was killed by accident on the fourteenth day after her capture, 



