5i6 



Marvels of the Universe 



displayed such an extraordinary state of afi'airs. When first discovered it was supposed that these 

 teeth were abnormal, but it is now known that such is not the case ; though the ultimate closing of 

 the mouth ma\' be only a feature of extreme old age. 



THE DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS 



BY R. LYDEKKER. F.R.S. 



If there be an animal in the world which specially merits the designation " marvellous," that animal 

 is assuredly the Duck-billed Platypus, or Duck-bill, as it is better called, of Southern and Eastern 

 Australia and Tasmania, for it is neither more nor less than a living survivor of a large group of 



Photo iy] 



[ir. Saville Kent. 



THE DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS. 



The beali of the DucU-bill is an adaptive structure designed for shovelling up the river shells and worms which form its food. 

 When out of the water the webs of the feet are folded bacU beneath the soles of the feet, to leave the claws free. 



creatures that in former epochs served to connect mammals with reptiles. First brought to the 

 notice of the scientific world by the naturalist Shaw, in the year 1799, the Duck-bill was described 

 by him under the name of Platypus, in allusion to its splay front-feet, but as that name had been 

 previously used for a group of beetles, it was replaced by Ornithorhynchns (the Greek for Duck- 

 bill) ; but although the foiTner name was abolished from scientific literature, it has survived as the 

 popular designation of this strange creature. In spite of the long time the Platypus has been known 

 to science, it was not till the latter part of the nineteenth century that we became fully acquainted 

 with its most remarkable peculiarities. 



This has been largely due to two things. In the first place the Platypus is one of the com- 

 paratively few species of peculiar mammalian types that has never been exhibited in the zoological 

 gardens of Europe ; and, in the second, naturalists, after their ^custom, persistently refused to 



