QUADRUPEDS. 89 
is so acute, that they disappear at the slightest noise, 
plunging into the water, in which they swim so low, that 
they only look like a mass of weeds floating on the sur- 
face. 
These curious animals produce their young in eggs, 
which are hatched the very moment they are laid ; and 
they nourish them with milk, which oozes through the fur 
from the chest of the female, though she has no teats. 
When the animal feeds, he plunges his beak into the 
mud, just like a duck; and he appears to be equally at 
home on land and in water. Two young ones that were 
kept for some time at Sidney, by Mr. Bennet, were very 
fond of rolling themselves up like a hedgehog, in the form 
of balls. They often slept in this position, and " awful 
little growls" issued from them when disturbed. They 
were fed with worms and bread and milk ; but captivity 
did not seem to agree with them, and they soon died. 
The shape of this animal is so extraordinary, that when 
a specimen was first sent to Europe it was supposed to 
have been manufactured by fixing the beak of a duck into 
the head of some small quadruped, with the intention to 
deceive. Subsequent experience has proved, beyond the 
possibility of a doubt, the existence of the animal, with- 
out in the smallest degree diminishing the wonder excited 
by its first appearance, as it appears to partake in almost 
equal parts of the nature of quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles. 
