28 OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANATOMY Oi^ 
grand division of the animal kingdom it evidently belonged; 
and, accordingly, in the Manuel of M. Blumenbach, we 
find it classed with the Beaver, Seal, Lamantin, &c. In 
the " Regne Animal,'''' the Ornithorynchus is better ar- 
ranged with the Edentata^ and is placed last. Two species 
are mentioned, one with reddish, smooth and slender hair, 
the Ornitliorynclms 'paradoxus of Blumenbach ; the other 
characterised by dark-brown hair (brun-noiratre), flattened 
and crisped M. Cuvier conjectures that these may be 
but a variety from age ; but I have observed, that all the 
dried specimens preserved in the Museum belong to the 
first species, — whilst the two animals lately imported, and 
of which I dissected one, belong decidedly to the second. 
These different species may be distinguished, not merely 
by the colour and texture of the hair, but also by the shape 
of the tail, which, in the latter, altogether resembles that 
of the beaver, as well in external appearance as in internal 
structure. 
The specimen dissected measured 16i inches from the 
end of the upper bill to the extremity of the tail ; from the 
edge of the cloaca to the extremity of the tail measured 
about four inches. 
The Ornithorynchus and Echidna (an animal closely al- 
lied to the former) are oviparous f. As they have no mam- 
mae, they are without the grand characteristic mark of the 
first class of animated beings. Already naturalists begin 
to think, that animals differing so remarkably from the 
Mammalia, cannot with propriety be arranged with them. 
The skin being the part to which naturalists chiefly di- 
rect their attention, has been sufficiently well described. 
* Voyag. de Peron, I. pi, xsxiv. The drawing's of the Ornithorynchus 
in Peuon'*s Works are ill-cxccutcd, judging by the specimcii now before me. 
t Home, Phil. Trans. 3 
