ORDER EDENTATA. 319 



lobes and a lobule ; the gall vesicle is large and elongated ; 

 the hepatic vessels are very short ; the reins globular ; the 

 bladder is very large, thin, and pyriformed ; the testicles 

 are enclosed in the belly near the reins; the urethra does not 

 take the ordinary direction, but terminates in the anus, as 

 in the birds; the glans penis is double, and terminated 

 by some hollow spines, through which, it appears, the 

 semen passes ; the orifice of the vagina is placed also in 

 the anus ; at the bottom of the vagina is the opening of the 

 urethra ; and in the same situation are found the two trum- 

 pet-formed openings, which may be considered as separate 

 matrices. 



The Ornithorynchi have hitherto been found only in the 

 rivers in the vicinity of Port Jackson, especially the river 

 Nepean, on the eastern coast of New Holland. Those 

 found in 1815, in Campbell River, and the River Mac- 

 quarie, beyond the Blue Mountains, are larger than those 

 before known : though they do not appear to differ speci- 

 fically. 



These animals are expert swimmers, and seldom quit the 

 water ; on shore they crawl rather than walk, occasioned by 

 the shortness of the limbs and comparative length of the 

 body. Nothing certain is known as to their food, but the 

 singular resemblance of their beak to that of ducks, 

 induces a strong probability that, like these birds, they 

 live on worms and aquatic insects. 



The above description applies to the Red or Common Or- 

 nithorynchus. Peron and Leseur have pointed out and 

 figured a brown species which differs from the other only 

 in having the fur of a blackish-brown flatted and frizzled, 

 instead of inclining to a red tint, and being quite smooth. 

 The existence, however, of this, as a distinct species, is 

 doubted, but there is a specimen in the British Museum 

 which seems referable to it, which, in addition to the par- 

 ticularities noticed, has the tail broader at the extremity, 



Z 3 



