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HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE PLATYPUS. 



By Launcelot Harrison, B.Sc, B.A. 



(Zoology Department, University of Sydney.) 



In searching back through the literature of a little more than a century to 

 discover what had been written about the Platypus, a necessary labour for the 

 purpose of a Natural History of the Platypus which I am preparing in collabora- 

 tion with Mr. Harry Burrell, 1 find a history of very great interest, which has 

 not been assembled before, and of which I feel justified in giving some im- 

 mediate account. 



The Platypus would seem to have been observed for the first time by the 

 colonists of New South Wales in the year 1797. In Collins' New South Wales, 

 pp. 62-3, under the date "November, 1797,'' there occurs the following account 

 of what was apparently the first individual captured: — 



"The Kangaroo, the Dog, the Opossum, the Flying Squirrel, the common 

 Rat, and the large Fox-bat (if entitled to a place in this Society), made up the 

 whole catalogue of animals that were known at this time, with the exception 

 which must now be made of an amphibious animal, of the mole species, one of 

 which had been lately found on the banks of a lake near the Hawkesbury. In size 

 it was considerably larger than the land-mole. The eyes were very small. The 

 fore legs, which were shorter than the hind, were observed, at the feet, to be 

 provided with four claws, and a membrane, or web, that spread considerably be- 

 yond them, while the feet of the hind legs were furnished, not only with this 

 membrane or web, but with four long and sharp claws, that projected as much 

 beyond the web. as the web projected beyond the claws of the fore feet. The 

 tail of this animal was thick, short, and very fat ; but the most extraordinary 

 circumstance observed in its structure was, its having, instead of the mouth of 

 an animal, the upper and lower mandibles of a duck. By these it was enabled 

 to supply itself with food, like that bird, in muddy places, or on the banks of 

 lakes, in which its webbed feet enabled it to swim; while on shore its long and 

 sharp claws were employed in burrowing; nature thus providing for it in its 

 double or amphibious character. These little animals had been frequently no- 

 ticed rising to the surface of the water, and blowing like a turtle." 



Collins' work was not published until 1802, but was written in diary form, 

 so that the above is probably the first written description of Ornithorhynchits, 

 though four other descriptions have priority of publication. Except for the fact 

 that the number of claws is wrongly given, it is a reasonably good description. 



I have not been able to trace the subsequent history of this first captured 

 individual, but in the year following its capture, this or some other specimen 

 has come into the hands of a London dealer, a "Mr. Dobson, so much distin- 

 guished by his exquisite manner of preparing specimens of vegetable anatomy," 

 who entrusted it to Dr. George Shaw, of the British Museum, for description. 



