Natural-Historical Collections. 375 
Aquatic birds generally, and especially the Urinatores, have no spaces from 
which true feathers do not arise; and besides being covered with true feathers, 
the whole surface is covered with a dense coat of down feathers. 
Now the dipper resembles the Passeres in having spaces from which no true 
feathers arise; but it also resembles the Urinatores in having a complete cover- 
ing of downy feathers, so that the spaces left entirely bare in the Passeres, are 
abundantly covered in it. 
The plumage of the dipper further resembles that of the Uvinatores, in being 
short, close, and compact. Most land birds have bristly feathers at the base of 
the beak, which in some species are very remarkable. The sea birds have none ; 
and in this respect also the dipper is an aquatic bird. 
This bird moves under water precisely in the same manner as true aquatic 
birds, viz. by flying. The plumage of its head and neck bears a striking resem- 
blance to that of the common auk and guillemot in colour and texture. Its beak 
and mouth have also some resemblance to those of the. latter bird ; but its feet 
are precisely the same as those of many passerine birds. 
The above facts, although they furnish no physiological reasons for the aquatic 
habits of the dipper, yet indicate a striking analogy in the structure of its enve- 
lope to that of the birds more peculiarly fitted for inhabiting the waters. 
On the Egg of the Ornithorynchus.—In No. III. of this Journal, (p. 124,) 
we were betrayed, by the hyperbolical style of the French reporters, into an asser- 
tion which now appears to have been made with an undue degree of confidence. 
The account given of the discovery of eggs of the Ornithorynchus, is not of a cha- 
racter to establish it as a fact in natural history. We extract from Professor 
Jameson’s Journal, a particular statement of the circumstances, which we believe 
to be from the pen of Professor Grant. 
** Your informer probably goes too far, when he says that I have seen and ex- 
amined the egg of an Ornithorynchus. I have examined the shells of two eggs 
in the possession of Mr. Leadbeater here, (London,) and brought from New 
Holland as those of the Ornithorynchus. You are aware that M. Murdoch, and 
other travellers, have maintained that they have seen the eggs of this animal, and 
that Mr. Hill declared, that, in dissecting a female, he found a small yellow egg 
in the left ovary. Geofiroy St. Hilaire has lately confuted the details of Meckel 
about the mammary glands, and considers these organs of the Ornithorynchus as 
of the same nature with the odorous glands of the squirrels. The day before I 
left Paris, in September last, that venerable anatomist mentioned to me, that he 
was perfectly convinced that the Ornithorynchus is a true oviparous reptile, from 
his examination of its structure, and particularly from its organs of generation. 
As you might expect, Geofiroy St. Hilaire felt a deep interest in my news about 
the eggs at present exhibited in London and Manchester, as those of this animal, 
and he entreated me to send him soon whatever information I could obtain regard- 
ing them, or to procure for him a specimen. : 
“* Two of these eggs are in the possession of Mr. Leadbeater, F. L.S. of Brewer 
Street here, and two are preserved in the Museum of Manchester, as I am in- 
formed by him. The whole four were brought from New Holland by Holmes, 
a collector of objects of natural history, who has resided many years in that coun- 
try, and who is known to some naturalists in London. They were brought along 
with a number of Australian birds to Mr. Leadbeater, who has a splendid collec- 
tion. Mr. Holmes was shooting on the banks of the Hawksburgh River, a great 
way up the country, when he saw an Ornithorynchus rise a few feet before him, 
and escape into the river: he saw the animal distinctly, and knew it well. On 
examining the spot where it had been sitting, he found a depression about nine 
inches diameter in the sand, and the four eggs in question lying in that hollow. 
““ The eggs are certainly not those of a bird, but they very closely resemble in 
form and size those which I have found in many Saurian and Ophidian reptiles, 
not a tenth part of the size of an Ornithorynchus. ‘They have not a thick and a 
warrow end like most birds’ eggs, but have a cylindrical form, suddenly rounded 
