120 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



In submitting the letter and printed remarks* from the illus- 

 trious Professor, Sir Richard Owen, who during more than half 

 a century advanced our knowledge on the development of the 

 Monotremata by his researches as the leading comparative 

 anatomist of this age, — it may not be inappropriate to observe, 

 that Baron von Mueller held also the view, that the small group 

 of animals, above alluded to, must be regarded as ovo-viviparous, 

 Dr. Nicholson having obtained a soft-shelled egg from an Orni- 

 thorrhynchus about 30 years ago near the Ovens-River. When 

 the Reverend Pastor Hagenauer sent so kindly the minute 

 young of an Ornithorrhynchus last year to our Patron, he took 

 the occasion, to point out in one of our public journals, that the 

 supposed nest of the Ornithorrhynchus should be regarded 

 rather as a mere bed, that the softness of the integument of the 

 ovum would not admit of a regular incubation-process, and that 

 therefore the Monotremata could not be classed with the 

 genuine oviparous animals, quite irrespective of the evidence 

 afforded by the rudimentary mammas and pouch both of Orni- 

 thorrhynchus and Trachyglossum. It is worthy of remark that 

 Prof. Blumenbach, when defining in 1800 the genus Orni- 

 thorrhynchus was inclined to consider it a transit from 

 Mammals to Reptiles, and that Prof. Shaw in 1799 

 regarded his genus Platypus as simply Mammalian. The 

 latter name would take precedence, were it not for Herbst's 

 genus Platypus among Coleoptera, established already 

 in 1793. In the Vicfonan J^i'eld A^a^ura/is/ a. vjritev drew atten- 

 tion last year to a much overlooked note, occurring in B. 

 Field's Geographic Memoires of New South Wales, published 

 in 1825, to the effect, that "the Platypus lays eggs" — a fact 

 doubtless then ascertained from aboriginal observations ; but 

 that seems the first record about the process of gestation of the 

 Monotremata. As in New Guinea two species of Trachy- 

 glossum have been discovered, and other members of this 

 curious tribe of animals may exist there and perhaps also on 

 some of the adjacent islands, now the manyzoologic collectors 

 there should be urged, to watch for ova and foetus of the 

 Trachyglossum likewise. To the latter name preference has 

 been given in recent zoology against Echidna, as the last men- 

 tioned appellation was preoccupied by Forster for an ichthyo- 

 logic genus already in 1778, — Cuvier's monotrematous one 

 being enunciated in 1797; the great French anatomist also 

 considered it simply as one of Mammalia. Much caution is 

 •evidently necessary in applying the latest discoveries, regarding 

 the subject, to discussions on the evolution-theorv. 



F. V. M. 



From the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, last issued. 



