CLASS MAMMALS : ORDER MONOTREMATA. 



109 



The Water Mole * caps the climax of the eccentric Aus- 

 tralian Zoology. The bill of a duck is attached to the body 

 of an otter; while on each side of either mandible is a 

 tooth without roots. In the sides of the mouth are capacious 

 cheek-pouches. The fore feet have a web extending beyond 

 their extremities, which can be folded up when the feet are 

 used for burrowing, or expanded when employed in swim- 

 ming. The hind feet are webbed only to the base of the 

 nails. The body is covered with fur, beneath which is a 

 layer of soft wadding, impervious to water. Its burrow runs 

 underground forty or fifty feet, with one entrance under 



Mg. 182. 



Omitliarhynchus paradoxus. Water Mole. \. 



water, and another just above. At the further end is a nest; 

 of grass for the rearing of its young, which are born and 

 nourished like those of other mammals. It swims upon the 

 surface, diving continually, and also, like the duck, thrusting 

 its beak into the mud for food. So far as present discoveries 

 indicate, it stands at the extreme of the mammals. 



* See "Fourteen Weeks in Geology," p. 1T8. 



