34 
THE BEAK. 
plunging its flat bill into the oozy pulp, the finer 
portion is sucked up through these tooth-line lines ; 
what it chooses is retained, the rest being thrown out 
and washed away by the rapid clattering motion of 
the flat-bill. As a further help, enabling them to 
BEAK OF THE SHOVELER DUCK. 
judge what is an agreeable and proper food, these birds 
are furnished with an additional supply of delicate 
nerves, extending to the very end of the beak ; hence 
it has been conjectured they have some sense of taste, 
of which birds in general are supposed to be destitute. 
That this is the use for which these additional nerves 
is designed, may be further gathered from the accurate 
examinations of a bill, much resembling a Duck’s, 
belonging to one of the most extraordinary animals 
in the world, found only in New South Wales. It is 
called the “ Duck-billed Platypus having the beak 
of a duck, the body of an animal, and the feet 
webbed, and furnished also with strong claws. As 
it lives under ground generally, its eyes are like the 
mole’s, so small as nearly to prevent its seeing. It 
depends, therefore, in great measure upon the sense 
of feeling, and smelling, and tasting belonging to the 
beak for its livelihood ; and accordingly it is found 
