1877. | MR. G. F, BENNETT ON ORNITHORHYNCHUE. 165 
hand side measuring at the entrance 10 inches wide, 8 high, and 10 
long. I then continued to dig about 6 feet more, when I came 
upon another chamber with an opening of 10 inches. In this 
chamber, which measured 18 inches long, 8 inches high, and 12 
wide, I found, to my delight, two young ones, their skins of a bluish 
tint with a glossy appearance, as if a down were coming over them, 
and measuring 43 inches from the beak to the tip of the tail. They 
had not got their eyes opened; but I resolved to try if they could 
swim at all; so I obtained a tin dish which would hold about a depth 
of water of 8 inches, and [ put one in at atime. They swam on 
vigorously, but could not keep their heads above the water, although 
they made great efforts todo so. After they had been about 25 
seconds in the water, I took them out and returned them to their 
nests, perfectly satisfied that up to this time they had never been in 
the water. The young Platypz were taken from the nest about noon 
on the 19th of November, and had no food given to them until 
Monday night, about 9 p.m., when they had a little milk sweetened 
with sugar, and lukewarm. They took about a teaspoonful each. 
The plan adopted to feed them was to insert one teaspoon into the 
mouth and gradually pour the milk from another intoit. They were 
fed regularly three times daily, and appeared healthy and lively to 
the time of their death, which happened about midday on Wednesday 
the 22nd of November, within an hour of each other. Every care 
was taken to keep them warm: they were placed in a box in their 
natural nest with an addition of wool ; the light was excluded, leaving 
a sufficient circulation of air. The day before their death, when the 
beak was placed in the spoon containing the milk, they appeared to 
lap it up. They did not waste away, but were quite plump when they 
died. They were very restless at night, keeping moving about the 
box ; in the day-time they were nearly always asleep. After death 
they decomposed so rapidly that I was not able to put them in spirits. 
“*Qne peculiarity in the burrows laid open was that the side- 
chambers, with only one exception, were situated on the right-hand 
side, and slightly higher than the main track of the burrow. The use 
of these chambers I cannot comprehend; for even when I have 
found nests, these chambers show no signs of having been used, even at 
any remote period, as they have nothing left in them, not even a bit 
of grass. I believe that the reason why I have as yet been unable to 
capture any of the old animals, in the nest or in the burrows, has been 
that I have commenced operations too early in the morning, before 
they have returned from their excursions in search of food; but on 
this and other subjects connected with the economy of these singular 
animals I hope next season to effect some more interesting discoveries, 
as this time I was ignorant and did not know how to commence 
exactly and had to work without any of the blacks. In the burrow 
shown in the second sketch (fig. 2), the nest was much deeper under 
the ground than in the first (fig. 1), being fully 4 feet from the surface 
of the ground (the other being 2 feet) and through a very hard sandy 
soil. Having taken the level of the hole from the water-surface, 
found that it was 22 feet; so that it would be a good flood that 
