334 



LIFE, IN ITS HIGHER FORMS. 



from the high development of the placental Mammalia, 

 and an approach to that of the oviparous Vertebrata in 

 general, and to that of the Reptilia in particular. 



This affinity with Reptiles is most marked in two very 

 singular little animals, the Echidna and the Ornithorhynchus. 

 They are the lowest forms of Mammalia, displaying some 

 points of similarity to Birds, but more to the Lizards, 

 especially in the structure of the sternum or breast- bone, 

 of the shoulder, and of the limbs generally. The latter in 

 particular, known as the Duck-bill, caused no little 

 astonishment and even suspicion, among zoologists, when 

 the first specimens were sent from New Holland to 

 Europe. Here was a four-legged animal, covered with 

 hair, but having the feet webbed like a water- fowl, and 

 furnished with a beak closely resembling that of a duck ! 

 For a long time it was believed that the reproduction of 

 this most anomalous creature was by means of eggs : but 

 it is now ascertained to produce living young, which are 

 suckled like those of other quadrupeds. Mr G. Beunet 

 has described, in a very interesting Memoir, 4 ' the habits 

 of life of these curious creatures. 



Few as are the members composing this Sub-class, they 

 include what we may consider as the parallels or represen- 

 tatives of most of the Orders of the typical Mammalia. 

 Thus the Opossums, in their opposible thumbs, seem to re- 

 present the Monkeys, the little Myrmecobius the Shrews, 

 and the Kangaroos the Ruminants; while more strongly 

 drawn analogies exist between the Dasyuri (the "Zebra- 

 wolf," " Native-devil," &c, of the Australian colonist) and 

 the Carnivora, between the Phalangites and Petauri, and 



* "Trans, of Zool. Soc," vol. i. p. 229. 



