356 ON THE 



animal, and particularly its bill and webbed feet, 

 we shall readily perceive that it must be a resi- 

 dent in watery situations ; that it has the habits 

 of digging or burrowing in the banks of rhers or 

 under ground, and that its food consists of aqua- 

 tic plants and animals. This is all that at present 

 can be reasonably gues&ed at. Future observa- 

 tions made in its native regions, will, it is hoped, 

 afford us more ample information, and will make us 

 fully acquainted with the natural history of anani- 

 mal, which differs so widely from all other quad- 

 rupeds, and which verifies in a most striking 

 manner the observation of Euffon, namely, that 

 whatever was possible for nature to produce has 

 actually been produced/' 



" On a subject so extraordinary as the present, 

 a degree of scepticism is not only pardon- 

 able hut laudable ; and I perhaps ought to ac- 

 knowledge* that 1 almost doubt the testimony of 

 my own eyes, with respect to the structure of this 

 animal's beak ; yet must confess that I can perceive 

 no appearance of any deceptive preparation; and 

 the edges of the rictus, the insertion, &c. when 

 tried by the test of maceration in water, so as to 

 render every part completely moveable, seem per- 

 fectly natural ; nor can the most expert anatomist 

 discover any deception in this particular." 



Since the above account of Dr. Shaw was pub- 

 lished, in which it is stated, that no teeth or tongue 

 could be discovered in the Ornithorynchus, this, 



