DUCKBILL CITARACTERISTICS 
The duckbill (Ornithorhynchus) is an animal eighteen to 
twenty inches long, inhabiting the rivers of Australia, 
Tasmania, and New Guinea, which manifests its 
aquatic nature in its form, fur, and great paddling feet provided 
with a webbing two sizes too large. 
Duckbill. 
The skin is loose and thickly covered with glossy hair, having an under 
layer of soft, short, waterproof fur, like that of a beaver. The head is 
small and round, with small bright eyes, and no external ears, although 
the internal ears are perfectly developed, and the hearing acute; and in- 
DUCKBILL, PLATYPUS, OR ORNITHORHYNCHUS. 
stead of the muzzle, mouth, and teeth of an ordinary quadruped, the crea- 
ture is furnished with a bill like that of a duck, and incloses the jaws 
within an extremely sensitive naked skin, grayish in color, which is raised 
into a frill-like fold that protects the eyes when the animal is probing 
mud; and which in mounted specimens dries hard. The nostrils are at the 
extremity of the upper mandible; the lower mandible has transverse la- 
mella, somewhat like the bill of a duck; and each jaw is furnished with 
two pairs of horny plates, serving the purpose of teeth for the adults; but 
true cheek teeth are present in young animals. The tongue is small, 
partly covered with horny spines, and may direct the food collected into 
two large cheek pouches, where it can be stored and conveniently carried 
to the burrow or other eating place. An interesting feature is the strong 
horny spurs on the heels of the male, which are movable and traversed 
by a minute canal opening at the point, and connected at the base with the 
duct from a large venom gland in the back part of the thigh. 
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