638 
THE DUCK-BILL, OR MULLING 0 NG. 
into tlie wound which, it made, but this opinion has been disproved by Dr. Bennett, who frt 
quently permitted, and even forced the animal to wound him with its spurs, and experienced 
no ill consequences beyond the actual wound. The animal has the power of folding back the 
spur so as to conceal it entirely, and is then sometimes mistaken for a female. 
The color of the adult animal is a soft dark brown, interspersed with a number of glisten- 
ing points which are produced by the long and shining hairs which protrude through the inner 
fur. Upon the abdomen the fur is a light fawn, and even softer than on the back. The under 
surface of the tail is devoid of hair — denuded, as some think, in forming its habitation — and 
the upper surface is covered with stiff, bristly hairs, brown towards the base and quite black 
at the extremity. The first coat of the young Duck-bill is always a bright, reddish-brown. 
It can run on land and swim in water with equal ease, and is sufficiently active to be able 
to climb well. Some of the animals that were kept by Dr. Bennett were in the habit of ascend 
DUCK-BILL, OR MULLINGONG.— Ornithorhynchus paradoxus. 
ing a perpendicular book-case, performing this curious feat by placing their backs against the 
wall and the feet upon the shelves, and so pushing themselves upwards as a sweep ascends the 
chimney. Its pace is not very swift, but it gets over the ground with ease. The burrow in 
which the Mullingong lives is generally from twenty to forty feet in length, and always bends 
upwards, towards a sort of chamber in which the nest is made. This nest is of the rudest 
description, consisting of a bundle of dried weeds thrown carelessly together. The burrow has 
a very evil odor, which is unpleasantly adherent to the hand that has been placed within it. 
Owing to the extremely loose skin of the Mullingong, it can push its way through a very 
small aperture, and is not easily retained in the grasp, wriggling without much difficulty from 
the gripe of the fingers. The loose skin and thick fur are also preventives against injury, as 
the discharge of a gun which would blow any other animal nearly to pieces, seems to take but 
little external effect upon the Duck-bill. The animal is, moreover, so tenacious of life, that 
one of these creatures which had received the two charges of a double-barrelled gun was able, 
after it had recovered from the shock, to run about for twenty minutes after it had been 
wounded. 
The food of the Mullingong consists of worms, water insects, and little mollusks, which it 
gathers in its cheek-pouches as long as it is engaged in its search for food, and then eats quietly 
when it rests from its labors. The teeth, if teeth they may be called, of this animal are very 
peculiar, consisting of four horny, channelled plates, two in each jaw, which serve to crush 
the fragile shells and coverings of the animals on which it feeds. It seems seldom to feed 
during the day, or in the depth of night, preferring for that purpose the first dusk of evening 
