142 



the ground ; that the colour of the upper mandible above, in an 

 animal recently taken out of the water, is of a dull dirty greyish 

 black covered with innumerable minute dots, and the under surface 

 of the lower white in the younger specimens, and mottled in the 

 more aged, while the inner surface of both is of a pale pink or flesh 

 colour ; that the eyes are brilliant, and light brovi'U ; and that the 

 external orifices of the ears, which are with difficulty detected in 

 dead specimens, are easily discoverable in the living, the animal ex- 

 ercising the faculty of opening and closing them at will. When 

 recent, and especially when wet, the Ornithorhynchvit has a peculiar 

 fishy smell, proceeding probably from an oily secretion. It is used 

 as food by the Natives, by whom it is called, at Bathurst and Goul- 

 hurn Plains, and in the Yas, Murrumbidgee and Tumat countries, by 

 the names of Mallangong or Tambreet. Mr. G. Bennett is inclined to 

 regard the two species usually described in modern books as not 

 differing sufficiently from each other to justify their separation, 

 and he therefore retains the name of Orn. paradoxus given to the 

 animal by Professor Blumenbach, the universal adoption of which 

 renders it inexpedient in this instance to recur to the older name 

 of Platypus imposed on it by Shaw. He remarks on the distor- 

 tions to which the exceedingly loose integuments are liable in the 

 hands of stuifers unacquainted with the characteristic features of 

 the animal, and gives the general result of his measurements, In the 

 recent state, of fifteen specimens shot and captured alive, as aver- 

 aging in the males from 1 foot 7 to 1 foot 8 inches, and In the fe- 

 males from 1 foot 6 to 1 foot 7 Inches, in total length. One male 

 specimen, shot near the Murrumbidgee River, measured 1 foot 1 1+ 

 inches ; and a female, shot In the afternoon of the same day in the 

 same part of the river, measured only 1 foot 4 inches. In these spe- 

 cimens the relative proportions of the beak and tail were subject to 

 considerable variation. 



Mr. G. Bennett's observations were commenced on the 4th of 

 October 1832, at Mundoona in the Murray County, on a part of the 

 Yas River running through the estate of Mr. James Rose. The 

 Water-Moles (as these animals are called by the Colonists,) chiefly 

 frequent the open and tranquil parts of the stream, covered with 

 aquatic plants, where the steep and shaded banks afford excellent 

 situations for the excavation of their burrows. Such expanses of 

 water are by the Colonists called " ponds." The animals may be 

 readily recognised by their dark bodies just seen level with the sur- 

 face, above which the head Is slightly raised, and by the circles made 

 in the water around them by their paddling action. On the slight- 

 est alarm they Instantly disappear ; and Indeed they seldom remain 

 longer on the surface than one or two minutes, but dive head fore- 

 most with an audible splash, reappearing, if not alarmed, a short 

 distance from the spot at which they dived. Their action Is so rapid, 

 and their sense of danger so lively, that the mere act of levelling the 

 gun is sufficient to cause their Instant disappearance ; and It is con- 

 sequently only by watching them when diving, and levelling the 

 piece in a direction towards the .spot at which they seem likely to 



