MARSUPIALS AND MONOTREMES 343 
particularly, with long, coarse, bristle-like hairs that intercross one another in all directions. 
Neither is this tail used, as with the beaver, as a mason’s trowel, it being simply subservient 
as a steer-oar. The feet are all four distinctly webbed, the membranes of the front feet in 
particular projecting to some distance beyond the extremities of the claws, and so com- 
municating to these members a singular resemblance to the feet of a duck. The head of the 
platypus tapers off from the body without any conspicuous neck, and terminates in a most 
remarkable duck-like beak, having at its base a supplementary membranous ferrule-like structure 
which would seem to serve the purpose of limiting the distance into which the beak of the 
animal is thrust into the mud during the quest for its accustomed food, and at the same 
time protecting the creature’s eyes. The mouth of the adult platypus contains no teeth, 
simply a few horny plates; but, singularly to relate, rudimentary teeth exist temporarily in the 
young animals. These provisional teeth, moreover, correspond in a marked manner with those 
of some ancient types of mammals which occur as fossils in the tertiary deposits of North 
America. The platypus, with relation to the obliteration of its teeth in the adult state, 
is regarded as a very exceptionally modified form and not as the immediate prototype of the 
ordinary mammals. 
The platypus is found in ‘Tasmania and in the south and eastern districts of Australia 
only, being altogether unknown in the west and north. Being especially shy and retiring, 
and to a large extent nocturnal in its habits, it is not frequently seen even in districts where 
it may be rather abundant. The animal excavates burrows of so great a length as from thirty 
to fifty feet in the river-banks that it frequents, and at the extreme end of these burrows it 
constructs a loose nest of weeds and root-fibres, which it uses as its retreat, and also for the 
production of its eggs and young. There are invariably two entrances to these burrows, the 
one being under water, and ‘the other usually opening into a tangle of brushwood at some 
little distance from the water’s edge. As many as from one to four eggs and young may be 
produced at a time, but two is the more general number. From the first it would appear 
that the eggs and young are deposited and nursed in the nest, not being retained or carried 
about in a pouch, as observed of the echidna. 
The late Dr. George Bennett, of Sydney, New South Wales, has probably placed on record 
the most detailed account of the ways and life-habits of these remarkable animals, though it did 
not fall to him to solve the much-vexed question as to whether or not they were oviparous. 
This discovery, as applied also to the like phenomenon in the case of the echidna, was the 
outcome within quite recent years of the researches of Mr. Caldwell. After much indefatigable 
exploration, in which he was ably 
assisted by the natives, Dr. Bennett 
obtained from the extremity of an ex- 
ceptionally long burrow a mother and 
pair of half-grown young. The young 
ones survived several weeks, and 
proved most droll and interesting pets. 
In playful habits they much resembled 
puppies, chasing and rolling one 
another over, and pretending to bite 
with their toothless bills. They were 
also much addicted to climbing every 
scalable article of furniture, including 
even a tall book-case, which they 
would negotiate by ‘ swarming” up 
Ve | behind it as a sweep climbs a chimney, 
Photo by D. Le Souef ] —_ - [Melbourne é , - 
with their backs to the wall and their 
-EATING PORCUPINE ‘ 
CELE Ney Te ae : feet against the back of the book- 
The female echidna can carry two eggs in her pouch, which in due course are 3 : 
hatched by the heat of her body case. The sleeping and waking hours 
