THE  ORNITHORHYNCHUS  PARADOXUS. 
237 
of  the  current,  and  it  is  generally  done  effectively.  I  recollect,  however,  seeing  two 
making  repeated  and  ineffectual  attempts  to  pass  a  small  waterfall  during  a  rapid 
current  of  the  river,  and  after  many  persevering  efforts  they  were  unable  to  attain  their 
object. 
The  opinion  that  I  had  heard  advanced  at  Sidney,  of  its  being  requisite  to  shoot  the 
Water-Moles  dead  instantly,  otherwise  they  would  sink  and  not  reappear,  I  did  not  find 
to  be  correct  in  practice.  If  missed,  indeed,  this  is  likely  to  occur  ;  but  if  the  animal 
is  wounded,  it  immediately  sinks,  but  soon  reappears  on  the  surface  of  the  water  some 
distance  beyond  the  place  at  which  it  was  seen  to  dive.  Some  require  two  or  three 
shots  before  they  are  killed  or  so  severely  wounded  as  to  enable  them  to  be  brought 
out  of  the  water ;  and  they  frequently  evade  being  captured,  even  when  wounded,  by 
frequent  and  rapid  diving.  Sometimes  too,  unless  the  sportsman  is  very  vigilant,  they 
may  come  up  among  the  reeds  and  rushes,  which  are  plentiful  in  some  parts,  extending 
out  from  the  banks  of  the  river,  and  thus  escape  observation  altogether.  I  have  no 
doubt,  also,  that  some  which  sink  after  being  wounded,  escape  into  their  burrows  ;  as 
even  when  they  cannot  reach  the  bank,  they  may  get  access  to  the  hole  by  the  sub- 
aqueous entrance. 
On  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  the  first  specimen  was  shot,  we  were  fortu- 
nate in  procuring  a  female.  It  w^as  twice  seen  paddling  about  on  the  water,  diving 
and  then  rising  again,  but  not  sufficiently  near  to  allow  of  its  being  fired  at ;  the  third 
time  it  dived,  rising  within  good  aim,  it  was  shot.  On  being  taken  out  of  the  water  it 
bled  from  the  mouth,  and  it  was  found  that  the  shot  had  struck  it  about  the  base  and 
on  other  parts  of  the  mandibles  ;  it  died  almost  immediately.  The  only  indications  of 
vitality  which  it  gave  consisted  of  a  gasping  motion  of  the  mandibles  and  a  convulsive 
action  of  the  hind  feet,  as  when  the  animal  combs  the  sides  of  the  abdomen  with  the 
claws  of  the  hind  feet.  This  specimen  differed  from  the  last  in  the  abdomen  being  of  a 
much  darker  ferruginous  colour  ;  but  from  subsequent  observations  of  numerous  spe- 
cimens, I  find  these  differences  to  depend  merely  on  the  age  of  the  animal.  In  this 
individual  the  web  of  the  fore  feet  was  entirely  black,  but  in  many  it  is  found  mottled ; 
the  under  mandible  was  nearly  white,  the  upper  of  the  usual  colour.  There  was  no 
spur  on  the  hind  foot,  but  on  the  situation  of  it  in  the  male,  the  female  had  a  small 
impervious  depression,  which  it  is  not  improbable  may  serve  for  the  reception  of  the 
spur  of  the  male. 
I  felt  great  delight  at  having  procured  a  female  specimen,  as  I  had  some  expecta- 
tion of  being  able  thereby  to  ascertain  the  mode  of  procreation  in  this  most  extraordi- 
nary quadruped.  At  all  events  I  expected  to  determine  whether  this  was  or  was  not 
the  commencement  of  the  breeding-season  among  them.  My  attention  was  immediately 
directed  to  the  abdominal  or  mammary  gland,  and  on  laying  aside  the  abdominal  in- 
teguments and  examining  its  situation,  I  was  at  first  rather  surprised  to  observe  scarcely 
any  appearance  of  it.    On  reflection,  however,  it  occurred  to  me  (a  supposition  which 
2  I  2 
