8S TilJ. \l(TtiI!lAX .VATURALIST. 



it tliey may have one or two passages to the surface, and also one 

 which opens on the face of the bank of the creek or liver which 

 they frequent. The entrance to this last is sometimes ahore and 

 sometimes below the water-level, according to the season of the year, 

 and consequent height of the water. The Platypus generally selects 

 a hole left by the root of a tree which has decayed away ; it enlarges 

 this hole, and makes its way inland and upwards till within a few 

 inches of the surface : it then extends the burrow on all sides to 

 form a cavity large enough to build a good-sized nest in. The nest 

 is composed of moss, leaves, dried grass, etc., and in this warm and 

 comfortable abode, the creature spends most of its time, sleeping, 

 rolle 1 up like a ball. The male when attacked, will fight with a 

 will, striking out with his hind feet, each of which has a long spur, 

 with which he can inflict a nasty wound. I have known such 

 Avounds to take a long time to heal. 



Food. — Morning and evening are the principal feeding times. 

 They then leave their holes and paddle up and down the sides of the 

 stream looking for food in the mud, much in the same manner as 

 a duck. They live on worms and small insects, but I have never 

 found a fish inside one at any time. In fact they cannot swallow 

 anything at all large. At the slightest sound they dive or swim 

 under water at a great pace, and for long distances at a time. 

 Hearing and sight are so sensitive, it is not easy for an inex- 

 p)erienced sportsman to shoot them while feeding. I have often 

 found them on land on a wet night, when they were doubtless look- 

 ing for worms, which would then come to the surface. 



How TO Keep a Platypus. — I have frequently had them alive, 

 and can see no reason why they should not be kept for years and 

 tamed, inasmuch as they have the largest brain of almost 

 any animal I have dissected for the size and weight of the 

 skull. I had a very fine specimen some few years ago, and kept it 

 for some weeks, until it began to get tame, and would come out of 

 its nest into the water, and swim and dive about in the presence of 

 strangers. Mr Wilson, the proprietor of the Argus, bought it from 

 me, and the further history is not known to me. 



I will now proceed to describe the method I took to keep them 

 alive. I first had a large water-tight box, say 4 ft. square and 3 ft. 

 deep, with rocks, and projections in it, and filled it with water. In 

 this box I put worms, bread crumbs, boiled eggs cut fine, and small 

 insects, as I could get them. And leading from this box just at 

 -the surface of the Avater I made a passage to another box, filled 

 with moss and fine grass, and after he had fed in the water, he 

 would pass into the other box and coil himself up, and go to sleep. 

 Therefore any person trying to keep them alive, must let them have 

 plenty of water to frequent when they choose to use it. And they 

 always piefer to feed in the water, and after having fed, they require 



