THE  ORNITHORHYNCHUS  PARADOXUS. 
251 
Can  the  animals,  I  thought,  confine  themselves  in  their  burrows  during  the  period  of 
gestation?  To  ascertain  this,  two  burrows  were  dug  up,  about  the  entrance  of  which 
tracks  of  the  animal  had  been  seen :  one  was  only  half  completed,  the  animal  having 
very  probably  been  killed  before  the  habitation  had  been  finished  ;  the  second  was  empty, 
the  owner  having  probably  met  with  a  similar  fate.  The  long  grass  and  shrubs  were 
very  luxuriant  and  dense  at  this  season  (the  summer)  of  the  year,  rendering  the  explora- 
tion or  discovery  of  the  burrows  of  the  animals  more  difficult  than  we  had  before  expe- 
rienced ;  and  the  thick  grass  affiarded  shelter  for  venomous  reptiles,  among  which  black 
and  brown  snakes  were  numerous,  which  rendered  the  process  not  a  little  dangerous. 
Failing  in  procuring  specimens  at  Yas,  I  left  for  Gudarigby,  near  the  Murrumbidgee 
River,  where  I  arrived  on  the  21st.  There  I  remained  for  several  days ;  but  although  I 
procured  specimens  of  the  animal,  the  results  of  the  dissection  were  very  unsatisfactory, 
the  only  female  shot  being  young  and  unimpregnated.  From  the  high  reeds  extending 
some  distance  out  into  the  river,  some  difficulty  was  experienced  in  getting  sufficiently 
near  the  animals  ;  and  the  specimens,  when  shot,  were  often  carried  by  the  stream  among 
the  reeds,  and  lost. 
On  the  27th  of  November  I  left  Gudarigby  to  return  to  Yas  Plains.  A  female  Orni- 
thorhynchus  had  been  shot  at  Mundoona  the  day  before  my  arrival.  In  this  specimen 
the  fears  I  had  entertained,  that  not  having  been  able  before  to  shoot  or  otherwise  pro- 
cure an  impregnated  female,  the  season  would  be  too  far  advanced,  as  the  young  would 
probably  have  been  produced,  were  realized.  This  female  had  evidently  just  produced 
her  young,  and  the  uterine  organs  exhibited  no  appearance  of  any  more  being  likely  to 
be  brought  forth  :  this  I  mention  because  some  have  thought  that  they  may  breed  twice 
a-year,  which  I  have  reason  to  doubt.  The  left  uterus  in  this  specimen  measured  2« 
inches  in  length  and  ^  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  The  mammary  glands  on  each  side 
were  very  large ;  but  it  is  a  curious  and  rather  an  interesting  circumstance  in  the 
oeconomy  of  this  animal,  that  after  having  been  shot,  no  milk  could  be  expressed  from 
the  glands.  This  was  the  more  surprising  to  me,  as  the  glands  were  very  vascular  on 
the  surface,  the  mammary  artery  ramifying  over  them  in  a  most  beautiful  and  distinct 
manner.  The  fur  still  covered  that  portion  of  the  integument  on  which  the  ducts 
terminated,  and  there  was  no  appearance  of  a  projecting  nipple.  In  the  animals  which 
I  have  subsequently  seen  with  a  lacteal  secretion,  there  has  been  no  projecting  nipple, 
and  the  fur  is  not  even  invariably  found  quite  rubbed  off"  at  the  situation  where  the 
ducts  of  the  gland  have  their  termination.  The  lacteal  glands  were  conglomerate, 
situated  one  on  each  side  of  the  abdomen,  a  short  distance  above  and  anterior  to  the 
hind  legs,  between  the  abdominal  muscles  and  the  integuments,  and  were  covered  w^th 
a  quantity  of  cellular  membrane,  which  enveloped  and  bound  together  the  numerous 
lobes  of  which  the  whole  mass  of  the  mammary  or  lacteal  gland  was  composed,  and  at 
the  same  time  connected  the  aggregate  mass  to  the  surrounding  muscles  and  integu- 
ments. The  glands  were  not  prominent,  nor  easily  to  be  distinguished  from  without,  on 
VOL.  I.  2  L 
