136 HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE PLATYPUS, 



removed. It may well be that the native, fearing the spurs, shore them off at 

 the same time. This capture would appeal' to be the same as that mentioned 

 by Collins , though there is no absolute certainty. 



Of the two specimens sent to Banks by Governor Hunter, one was given 

 by the former to Professor Blumenbach, of Gottingen, who published a descrip- 

 tion of it in Voigt's Magazin (Bd. II., 180(1). This description is not available 

 in Sydney, but Mr. Oldiield Thomas has very kindly given me the gist of it. 

 Blumenbach gave the animal the name of Omithorhynchms paradoxus, being, 

 presumably, in ignorance of Shaw's prior description. It so happened that 

 Shaw's generic name Platypus had been used by Herbst in 1793 for a genus of 

 Coleoptera, so that Shaw's generic name could not stand. The correct name of 

 the Platypus is therefore Omithorhynchits anatinus Shaw, though this did not 

 come to be recognised or admitted until a much later date. 



Blumenbach specifically mentions that the specimen he described was the 

 tirst that had been .sent out of England, so it seems reasonably certain that only 

 three specimens were known in Europe up to 1800, that in the hands of Mr. 

 Dobson, and those sent by Hunter to Banks. 1 have not succeeded in tracing 

 any reference to the latter at this end. A search of the Historical Records of 

 New South Wales discloses advices of two specimens only. King writes to Banks 

 under the date 28th September, 1800 : — "I send you by the hands of Capt. Kent, 

 who is nephew to the Governor Hunter, and commands the Buffalo which he 

 takes home with him, a cask in which is a water-mole ..." (Hist. Bee. IV., 

 p. 205). In due course Kent writes from on board the Buffalo in Portsmouth 

 Harbour, on 1st July, 1801 : — "The keg containing the water-mole and other 

 articles in spirits .... I have still on board." (loc. cil., p. 427). 



Everard Home described the anatomy of the Platypus in the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1802, from two specimens, male and female, sent in spirit to 

 Sir Joseph Banks. The individual mentioned above would certainly be one of 

 these, but of the other 1 can find no mention. In a second paper by Home in 

 the same volume (1802, p. 350), I find the following words: — " .... had I 

 not been favoured by Sir Joseph Banks with a specimen of the paradoxus 

 brought from New South Wales by Mr. Belmain." Balmain, whose name is 

 still borne by the water-side suburb of Sydney which has grown up about his 

 original land grant, came out as Assistant Surgeon with the First Fleet, suc- 

 ceeded John White as Head Surgeon in 1796, and returned to England on leave 

 by the Albion, arriving in March, 1802. A quantity of specimens was placed 

 by King in his personal charge for delivery to Banks. (Hist. Rec, IV., pp. 

 514-5). I take it that the specimen brought by Balmain did not form part of 

 the material examined by Home in his earlier paper, but there is a possibility 

 that I am wrong in this. 



Of the first five (or six) specimens which reached England, then, one dry 

 skin was held by Mr. Dobson, one by Banks presumably, and a third was sent 

 to Blumenbach, while two (or three) spirit specimens, sent to Banks, were 

 examined by Home. It would probably be comparatively easy to trace the 

 history of these specimens, were one in England. The twenty-one folio manuscript 

 volumes of Banks' papers in the library of the British Museum would pretty 

 certainly disclose further particulars. But the facts and inferences which I have 

 given are all I can glean in Australia. 



The first account of the habits of the Platypus is that given to Home by 

 Hunter. Home writes (Phil. Trans., 1802, p. 67) : — "Governor Hunter, who has 

 lately returned from New South Wales" — he landed in England on 24th May, 

 1801 — "where he had opportunities of seeing them alive, has favoured me with 

 the following particulars respecting them. 



