REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
51 
certain ways; and yet the outward-turned back feet are provided with 
a very long and strong sharp claw — its only means of defence. These 
claws are said to inflict a bad and poisonous scratch, and so men keep 
a wary eye upon them when catching the strange creatures. They have 
another use, too, for they are the platypus’s only article of toilet. It 
can twist these hind legs about in any direction, and with the claws can 
comb its long fur out nice and smooth, and get rid of any tangles that 
mar its beauty. It lays one or two eggs, takes them between its hind 
legs, rolls itself up into a ball with its bushy tail covering its face, and 
hatches the young in that fashion. The only relation it has got in the 
world is the echidna, or ant-eating porcupine — and they don’t play speaks 
with one another. 
SOME HAVE GREATNESS THRUST UPON THEM. 
It is very difficult to keep platypuses alive in captivity. They are 
quite numerous, and can be found in most rivers of any consequence in 
Australia and Tasmania. A few years ago, when Sir (now Lord) 
Gibson Carmichael was Governor of Victoria, a telephone message was 
received at the Zoo from Richmond stating that a platypus had just been 
found in a quarry hole there — it had evidently got itself lost from the 
Yarra — and the finders wished that someone from the Zoo would come 
out and get it. Mr. Wilkie went for it, brought it back, and placed it 
in the large “flight aviary,” where hundreds of small song birds live 
under such favorable conditions that they hardly know they are in 
captivity. In this aviary there is a small pond and a lot of ferns and 
fern stumps about the banks of it — just an ideal place for a platypus 
to hide when he wishes for forty winks. For a few days the little 
prisoner sulked, but presently when Mr. Wilkie caught him tenderly, 
and placed a dish of finely-chopped meat under his nose, he began to 
rub his beak in it. When he found the taste was good he began to 
shovel up the food like a duck would, and thenceforward there was no 
trouble in getting him to eat. Indeed, as the days went by, Mr. Wilkie 
only had to whistle to him to come out, and at once the queer bill would 
push some undergrowth on one side, and a pair of beady eyes would 
look up inquiringly from amid the ferns, and then a few words of 
encouragement were all that was required to bring him waddling towards 
the tempting dish. It was most interesting to watch him eat. The 
platypus has no teeth in its bill, the inside of which is serrated like 
a duck’s, but at the back of the bill, where it joins the head, there are 
two strong incisors top and bottom of the jaw, and with these he grinds 
