34 
MONOTREMATA. 
account of the habits of the Ornithorliynchus 1 , from-which we 
shall proceed to make some extracts. 
Mr. Bennett was so eager to obtain a view of the living 
Omitliorhynclius, after his arrival in Australia, that upon 
reaching a friend’s estate at Mundoona, although after a long 
journey, he readily acceded to an offer to walk out to the 
banks of a neighbouring river frequented by the animal.— 
“ We soon came to a tranquil port of the river,” observes Mr. 
Bennett, " such as the colonists call a ‘ pond/ on the surface 
of which numerous aquatic plants grew. It is in places of 
this description that the water-moles are most commonly seen, 
seeking their food among the aquatic plants, whilst the steep 
and shaded banks afford them excellent situations for exca¬ 
vating their burrows. We remained stationary on the hanks, 
waiting their appearance with some degree of impatience, and it 
was not long before my companion quietly directed my atten¬ 
tion to one of these animals, paddling on the surface of the 
water, not far distant from the bank on which we were then 
standing. In such circumstances they may be readily recog¬ 
nized by their dark bodies just seen level with the surface, 
above which the head is slightly raised, and by the circles 
made in the water around them by their padtiling action. On 
seeing them the spectator must remain perfectly stationary, as 
the slightest noise or movement of his body would cause their 
instant disappearance, so acute are they in sight or hearing, 
or perhaps both, and they seldom reappear when they have 
been frightened. On ordinary occasions, they do not remain 
more than a nnnute or two at a time on the surface of the 
water. 
A burrow ol an Ornithorhynchus , which Mr. Bennett 
opened, had its entrance on a steep part of a hank, situated 
1 Notes on the Natural History and Habits of the Omithorhynchu* 
paradoxus , by Air. George Bennett.—Transactions of the Zoolo-ical Society, 
vol. i. p. 229. 
