OBBTlTffOBHrXCHIDJS. 385 



Dimensions, 



a (stuffed). b (skin). 



Adult Adult, 



millim. millim. 



Head and body 480 505 



Tip of muzzle to eye 94 (contracted) 126 



Second hind claw 47 50 



Third hind claw 36 35 



Fourth hind claw 23 29 



Skull, see last page. 



Hah. N.W. New Guinea. 



Type in the Museo Civico, Genoa. 



Ad. sk. I , New Guinea. M. Leon Laglaize 



Skeleton (mounted). ( °- _ [C]- 



Ad. si ' -, " . 



Skull. 



I Ad. sk. I p New Guinea. Purchased. 



Family 11. ORNITHOEHYNCHIDtE. 



Monotremes adapted for an aquatic fluviatile life. Sexes markedly 

 different in size. Muzzle in the form of a broad, flattened, horny 

 beak, singularly similar to that of a duck. Tongue not extensile. 

 Fur composed of two sorts of hairs ; not mixed with spines. Tail 

 well developed, broad and flattened. Limbs short, subequal ; hands 

 and feet modified as swimming-organs, the toes broadly webbed. 

 Palms and soles smooth, finely wrinkled, without pads. Horny spur 

 of male much larger than in the Echidnidce. 



Skull with a smaller and more flattened brain-case than in the last 

 family ; muzzle elongated ; premaxiUary bones four in number, an 

 external and an internal one on each side, the internal ones, which 

 correspond to that part of the ordinary mammalian premaxiUse 

 lying between the two anterior palatine foramina, fusing together in 

 the median line into a single bone, known as the " dumbbell-shaped 

 bone"; external premaxiUaries widely expanded anteriorly, sepa- 

 rated both from the internal premaxiUaries between them and from 

 each other in front. Squamosals comparatively small ; zygomata 

 broad vertically, thin transversely, arising very far back on the 

 skull. Palate smooth, flat, without vacuities. Mandibles compara- 

 tively stout, flattened, and twisted outwards in front ; base of mas- 

 seteric fossa hollowed out into a deep cavity communicating with 

 the inferior dental canal, just in the manner so characteiistic of the 

 Macropodidm among the Marsupials (supra, p. 4). Condyles large, 

 broader than long. 



Teeth rudimentary, only found in young animals, and never 

 cutting the gum. These teeth are multicuspid, but there is as yet 

 no evidence as to their individual homologies with the teeth of the 

 Marsupials or other Mammals, although their form and position 



2c 



