36 
LITTLE FOLKS 
THE ODDEST OF ALE 
I think we may safely call this the very oddest creature that 
ever lived. He has a bill like a bird, fur like a beast, and he swims 
like a fish, and climbs like an animal. 
He is so strange looking that dogs bark at him, and cats put 
up their backs and spit, and I'm sure no one can blame them. 
He comes from Australia, and his name is either Duckbill, 
Water Mole, Mallangong, Tambreet, Tohunbuck, Platypus, or Or- 
nithorhynchus paradoxus, — whichever you like. For my use, the 
English Duckbill is good enough, so I shall call him by that, if he 
is a full blooded Australian. 
There are other curious things about him besides his bill. To 
begin with, there's his fur coat. In fact, you may say he wears two 
coats. Next to his skin is a thick woolly fur which keeps out the 
