April 13, 188S.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



347 



Natural Itdsftorg* 



WHAT IS THE DUCKBILL ? 



What is the Duckbill ? That is a question which 

 caused great perplexity in the days when the 

 animal was first discovered ; it is a question which 

 causes equal perplexity now. Where in the zoological 

 scale are we to place a creature which so strangely unites 

 in its own person the characteristics both of birds and of 



ribs are ossified ; and a spur runs from the hinder foot of 

 the male, analogous to that with which we are familiar in 

 the case of the game-cock and many of its allies. The 

 limbs, of course, are very difterent, although the general 

 principle of their structure is the same. The anterior 

 pair are not modified into wings, neither are the hinder 

 pair suited for perching, for wading, or for running. Yet 

 even these latter members are strikingly similar to those 

 of the swimming birds, save and except that they are 

 also adapted for scraping and shovelling away the earih 

 through which their owner is accustomed to burrow. 



mammals, and yet appears definitely to belong to neither 

 group ? How are we to account for the various dis- 

 crepancies with which it presents us ? 



In outward appearance it is a mammal. True; but its 

 skeleton is far more the skeleton of a bird. We find, for 

 example, that it possesses a distinct furcular bone, or 

 "merry thought," in addition to what are apparently the 

 true clavicles, or collar-bones ; and these latter, upon 

 closer examination, we find, developed in no little degree, 

 to be the coracoid bones which are so prominent in the 

 skeleton of a bird. The skull and the bones connected 

 with it, again, closely resemble those of a duck, just as 

 does the outward appearance of the head; and the sternal 



On the other hand, it is clear enough that the animal 

 does not and never did fly, that it is clothed with hair 

 and not with feathers, and that it suckles its young. 

 And these facts were formerly considered as sufficient to 

 determine its position among the mammals. But later 

 discoveries almost compel us to modify this conclusion. 

 Geology, for example, shows us that certain reptiles in 

 days of old were feathered ; and thus vanishes the one 

 essential point of difference which was believed in all 

 cases to hold good. We must now admit, as Mr. Grant 

 Allen shows us, that birds are merely modified reptiles 

 it almost seems as if we shall also be compelled to admit 

 that mammals are merely modified birds. For the still 



