600 



THE EGG-LAYING MAMMALS. 



"I could allow the young animals the liberty of 

 the room, but one old one scratched the wall so 

 incessantly that I had to shut it up. Then it lay 

 quietly all day, but always renewed its attempts to 

 escape during the night. When I disturbed the ani- 

 mals in their sleep, there was always a murmuring. 



" My little Duck-mole family lived for some time 

 longer and thus I could observe their habits. The 

 little animals appeared frequently to dream of being 

 in the water: for their fore-paws were often seen to 

 move as they would in swimming. When I placed 

 them on the ground by day, they sought a dark rest- 

 ing-place and in such a spot or in their prison they 

 soon fell asleep, their bodies being disposed of in a 

 curled-up attitude; but they preferred their usual 

 resting place to any other. 



"At evening my two little pets emerged from 

 their cage at dusk and usually ate their food; then 

 they began to play like a couple of young Dogs, 

 attacking each other with their beaks, lifting their 

 fore paws and climbing over each other. They were 

 extremely lively; their little eyes gleamed and the 

 apertures of their ears opened and closed in remark- 

 ably rapid succession. As their eyes stand quite 

 high in their heads they can not see very well 

 straight ahead, and therefore are apt to come into 

 collision with contiguous objects. 



" Soon after my arrival in Sydney the animals, to 

 my great regret, lost much of their flesh, and their 

 skins lost their fine, shining appearance. Their ill 

 health was plainly seen in all their actions, and their 

 appearance could only excite pity. On the 29th of 

 January the female died and was followed on the 

 2d of February by the male. I had kept them 

 alive only about five weeks." 



Incubation and The Duck-mole lays several soft- 



Deuelopmentofthe shelled eggs, in which, according to 



Duck-mole. Caldwell's discoveries, the embryos 



before being hatched, are developed to about the 



same stage of growth as are those in a Hen's tgg 

 which has been incubated for thirty-six hours. The 

 eggs are hatched in the nest. The newly-hatched 

 young are small, naked, blind and as helpless as 

 those of the Echidna or of the pouched animals. 

 Their beaks are short. 



In the zoological garden at Melbourne Duck- 

 moles have occasionally been kept of late years, but 

 none have, so far, reached Europe alive. 



TWO OTHER MONOTREMES. 



The already described Monotremes should per- 

 haps be followed by a recently discovered, unnamed 

 animal of the interior of Australia. Its fur has a 

 metallic lustre and it lives subterraneously. So far 

 only one — and that, unfortunately, mutilated — speci- 

 men is known, and it still awaits a detailed descrip- 

 tion. 



A still more important acquisition to the natural 

 history of the lowest forms of mammals, however, 

 would probably be the description of the sole in- 

 digenous terrestrial mammal of New Zealand. This 

 animal resembles an Otter in general appearance; it 

 livfs near and in the water like that animal and is 

 now probably restricted to the elevated lakes of the 

 New Zealand southern mountain chain. It has been 

 seen several times, and once so near that the ob- 

 server dealt it a blow with a whip, after which it dis- 

 appeared in the water, uttering a shrill cry. Julius 

 von Haast saw the animal's tracks in the snow, but 

 no one has yet succeeded ip obtaining a specimen. 

 New Zealand possesses the lowest forms of bird life 

 of any country of the globe; and it is very possible 

 that its single living, indigenous mammal stands as 

 much below the Monotremes in development as the 

 Monotremes are below the pouched animals, and 

 thus would furnish important and perhaps surpris- 

 ing disclosures concerning the origin of the highest 

 class of vertebrates, which includes Man. 



