Duckbill

or Platypus, a peculiar animal belonging to the sluggish streams of Australia, Papua, and Tasmania. It certainly is one of the most peculiar, most irregular creatures in the animal kingdom. It combines in its make-up a number of features belonging to animals wholly unrelated. It is about twenty inches in length, and has a body shaped not unlike that of a muskrat, covered with glossy black outer hair, with fine beaver-like fur beneath. The tail is broad and short, the upper surface is hairy. The eyes are small, and bright. The ears have no external opening, but the animal hears very well. The jaws are prolonged into a duck-like bill of horn, covered with black, smooth, sensitive, bare skin. The feet are webbed and furnished with digging claws. The membrane of the front foot is large. It extends beyond the claws like a round disk but it can be folded back into the palm, so as to expose the claws for digging. The duckbill lives in colonies, in streams far enough from the sea to escape brackish water. It is a great swimmer and diver. Its food consists of snails, shell fish, and mud-loving insects, for which it puddles like a duck in muddy bottoms. The duckbill digs a burrow into the river bank, with an entrance under the water, but terminating in a dry, grassy nest, to which the female retires in the breeding season. One of the most peculiar facts about this quadruped is that it gives birth, not to young, but lays several white eggs about three-quarters of an inch in length and one-half an inch in diameter, covered with a soft papery shell, like the eggs of a turtle. The mother keeps these eggs warm with her body for a time until the young are hatched, when she suckles them like any other mammal. Duckbills are shy and difficult to observe. On the approach of a person they dive to the bottom of the water, or retire to their burrows and reappear only when they believe the coast to be clear. The adult makes a noise not unlike the growling of a puppy, but it is inoffensive and peaceable. The duckbill is also called the duck mole. See Echidna; Australia