229 



DUCK-BILLED PLATYPUS. 



Platypus Anatinus. Vivarium Nature, tab. 385. 



The Duck-billed Platypus. Naturalist's Miscellany, pl.tf^. 



The animal exhibited on the present plate con- 

 stitutes a new and singular genus, which, in the 

 Linnasan arrangement of quadrupeds, should be 

 placed in the order Bruta, and should stand next 

 to the genus Myrmecophaga. 



Of all the Mammalia yet known it seems the 

 most extraordinary in its conformation; exhibit- 

 ing the perfect resemblance of the beak of a Duck 

 engrafted on the head of a quadruped. So accu- 

 rate is the similitude, that, at first view, it natu- 

 rally excites the idea of some deceptive prepara- 

 tion by artificial means ; the very epidermis, pro- 

 portion, serratures, manner of opening, and other 

 particulars of the beak of a shoveler, or other 

 broad-billed species of duck, presenting them- 

 selves to the view: nor is it without the most mi- 

 nute and rigid examination that we can persuade 

 ourselves of its being the real beak or snout of a 

 quadruped. 



The body is depressed, and has some resem- 

 blance to that of an Otter in miniature : it is co- 

 vered with a very thick, soft, and beaver-like fur, 

 and is of a moderately dark brown above, and of 

 a subferruginous white beneath. The head is flat- 

 tish, and rather small than large : the mouth or 

 snout, as before observed, so exactly resembles 

 that of some broad-billed species of duck that it 



