108 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
PLATYPUS CLIMBING 
When walking or climbing the web on the front 
feet was folded underneath so that the claws or 
nails supported the foot. 
by rid himself of a lot of water that was on 
his fur. He had to pass through five of these 
rubber openings and by the time he had gone 
through them all and reached his sleeping com¬ 
partment;, he was comparatively dry. Thus the 
risk of the animal contracting cold or possibly 
pneumonia was greatly lessened. 
My first attempt to bring one to New York 
was in 1916 and I must say that it was not a 
fair trials either to the animal or to myself. 
Mr. Burrell had secured one for me from the 
Namoy River and it arrived in Sydney one day 
before I sailed on the S. S. Niagara, one of the 
Canadian-Australian liners. I kept it for ex¬ 
actly one week and then unfortunately it died. 
On my return to Australia from the United 
States in February, 1917, I was unable to give 
the matter much attention as I was too busy 
getting a collection together and so deferred 
action until I had made another trip to Amer¬ 
ica. When I returned to Sydney on October 
27, 1917, I put all my energy into the keep¬ 
ing of the platypus alive in captivity. I se¬ 
cured two and kept one for 96 days and the 
other for 125 days. Then I got several others 
from time to time and kept them for varying 
periods, from one week to over one year. On 
August 27, 1918, I secured one and kept him 
until April 26, 1919, on which date the ani¬ 
mal died. I honestly believe that the animal 
would have lived longer had it been possible 
for me to give it my personal attention, because 
for three weeks before its death I saw very 
little of it. I was ill with the pneumonic in¬ 
fluenza—raging at the time all over the world— 
and had to depend on others to see to his keep¬ 
ing. 
As soon as I was up, I secured several more 
specimens and on one occasion I had three 
females and one male quartered together. To 
my sorrow I found that the male fought them 
and just worried them, and in one instance 
there were several scratches on the bill of the 
female which I am sure could not have been 
made except by the claws, or possibly by the 
spur of the male. The females ultimately were 
afraid to go in their sleeping box for I put 
them in myself on several occasions in the 
course of a day and they would struggle hard 
HEAD OF THE PLATYPUS 
The eye with the deep pit or hole back of it, 
and the folded front foot are easily discernible. 
