30 



THE PLATYPUS. 



The following notes on the Platypus (Cr)iithorhync7ius 

 anatinus) by Morton Allport, F.L.S,, F.Z.S., etc., etc. 



IBeacl I4t7i March, 1878.] 



The majority of our indigenous mammals are gradually but 

 surelv becoming extinct, and, therefore., observations on their 

 habits of life, though possibly of but trivial interest now, will 

 in a few generations, be eagerly sought for and be as valuable 

 then as a few authentic notes on the marners and customs of 

 the Dodo or the Moa would now be to us. 



An additional value is given to the minute life-history of 

 marsupials and monotremes by the fact that they represent 

 here in actual existence a condition of things which in the 

 northern hemisphere is only known as a bygone world, and 

 such life-history to the studious geologist may furnish a key 

 that will unlock and display far more of the details of past 

 eras tlian the most careful study of the few fossil remains of 

 early European marsupials can ever afford. 



On a fine hot evening at the close of last January T was 

 sauntering, rod in hand, down a wild part of one of the small 

 tributaries of the Huon, known as the Mount Eiver, when my 

 attention was directed to a disturbance in a still pool some 

 150 yards below, and directly afterwards I saw the low flat 

 back of a Platypus resting on the surface. One ba,nk hap- 

 pened to be a high one, and as a tree had fallen across the 

 pool making a rude bridge some 10 feet from the water, a 

 good oj^portunity offered for making observations of the 

 creature's proceedings, the more so as the water was of such 

 brilliant clearness as to render fly-fisbing a heartbreaking 

 occupation. Divesting myself of my rod and basket I crept 

 silently through the scrub and reached the lower end of the 

 log ; then lying on it at full length, I crawled on, taking 

 every opportunity of progressing while the Platypus was under 

 water, and remaining as motionless as the log itself when he 

 came to the surface, being ultimately placed in so good a 

 position that I could, and did, for more than half an h jur, 

 watch all his movements. It v/as a large specimen a.nd one 

 of that variety which has very red fur on the sides. Down 

 the centre of the pool, which was very deep in places, there 

 was a long ridge of coarse gravel, consisting of stones each 

 from an inch to four or five inches in diameter, and it was to 

 this ridge of gravel that my friend's attention was altogether 

 directed. The depth over the gravel was in the shallowest 

 places about 2 ft. 6in., and his method of proceeding was to 

 burrow his head and more than half the body amongst the 

 stones, causing a small cloud of sediment to arise at each 



