56 MARVELS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



coloured and marked, whilst those of the tinamou 

 or Argentine partridge are so highly glazed as to 

 have the appearance of being varnished. Mention 

 must be made of the flightless apteryx or kiwi of 

 New Zealand, a bird not so large as a domestic 

 hen, which is unique on account of the enormous 

 size of the eggs laid by the female, these 

 frequently measuring five inches or more in 

 length. 



As previously stated, the egg-laying mammals 

 are represented by the platypus and the echidnas. 

 They belong to a sub-order of the Marsupialia 

 (classified as the lowest of the Mammalia), and are 

 curious in the fact that they do not possess any 

 teeth when adult. In the young of the former, 

 however, horny and tubular teeth are present which 

 gradually wear away and are eventually replaced by 

 horny plates, a fact which zoologists regard as 

 proving that the ancestors of the creature were 

 originally provided with a permanent set. In 

 addition to the horny plates situated upon the 

 jaws, the adult platypus also possesses a series of 

 transverse ridges upon the palate which are similar 

 to those found in ducks ; while in the echidna, small 

 spines, which slope backwards and serve to guide 

 the animal's food towards its throat, are attached 

 to the tongue and palate. The platypus, formerly 

 fairly plentiful in certain parts of Southern and 

 Eastern Australia, but now extremely rare, attains 

 to a length of about twenty inches, and is clothed in 

 a somewhat thick fur suggesting that of a mole. 

 Its flat and duck-like beak is rounded in front, and 



