Quadrupeds. 6919 



with a male specimen taken in that way a short time since in the 

 Mulgoa Creek, and found dead in the morning) it is entangled in the 

 meshes, and, being unable to rise to the surface to breathe, is 

 drowned. 



January 5th. Last night I observed the animal emerge from the 

 water and enter the burrow ; this was about 11 p.m. This morning I 

 did not see him in the water ; he appeared yesterday evidently droop- 

 ing and sickly, and I fear we have not yet got into the method of 

 feeding them. Their food being minute and delicate it requires some 

 experience to give it to these peculiar animals successfully. On 

 opening the burrow the animal was not there, and on drawing off the 

 water we found him stiff and dead at the bottom. Having, no doubt, 

 been too weak to regain the burrow he perished when in the water. 

 Thus ends the first experiment of keeping duckbills alive. 



On dissection I found that they had been starved ; there was no 

 food or sand either in the intestines or pouches, nothing but dirty 

 water. Should I procure other specimens it is my intention to intro- 

 duce into my tank river-shrimps and insects of different kinds previous 

 to placing them in it, so that they may obtain a sufficient supply of 

 their natural food. Still all this will increase the difficulty of taking 

 them to Europe, as the supply cannot be kept up at sea. They 

 evidently are very delicate animals, and life is soon destroyed if nutri- 

 ment is not rapidly kept up. The specimens were not emaciated in 

 body before they died. 



The testes in this male were very small, not being larger than peas. 

 The animal was full-grown, and of the size of the largest specimens 

 usually seen. 



Sometimes I have seen the male with the spur so far thrown back 

 and concealed from view as, at a glance, to be taken for the female, 

 and when opened for anatomical examination to be mistaken for one, 

 so that it is not improbable that the large testes resembling pigeons' 

 eggs may have given rise to the notion of the animal laying eggs. 



I have no doubt that the duckbills make their burrows high in the 

 banks, so as to be out of reach of the floods which occasionally prevail. 

 Although amphibious in their habits they require to repose on the dry 

 land, and also to breathe atmospheric air at short intervals of time. 

 Did they not adopt some plan of the kind, they would be destroyed 

 or drowned in their burrows by the floods. 



Another very young specimen was kept for three weeks, and fed 

 upon worms ; it had a rudimentary spur ; it was very tame and easily 

 fed by hand ; it died on the 7th of February, and was preserved in 

 spirits. 



