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Rh on, and waiting for the sport to be renewed. When running they are exceedingly animated; their little eyes glisten; and the orifices of their ears contract and dilate with rapidity; if taken into the hands at this time for examination they struggle violently to escape; and their loose integuments make it difficult to retain them. Their eyes being placed so high on the head, they do not see objects well in a straight line, and consequently run against everything in the room during their perambulations, spreading confusion among all the light and readily-overturnable articles. . . Sometimes I have been able to enter into play with them by scratching and tickling them with my finger; they seemed to enjoy it exceedingly, opening their mandibles, and biting playfully at the finger, and moving about like puppies indulged with similar treatment. As well as combing their fur to clean it when wet, I have also seen them peck at it with their beak (if the term may be allowed) as a duck would clean its feathers. When I placed them in a pan of deep water they were eager to get out after being there for only a short time; but when the water was shallow, with a turf of grass in one corner, they enjoyed it exceedingly. They would sport together, attacking one another with their mandibles, and roll over in the water in the midst of their gambols, and would afterwards retire, when tired, to the turf, where they would lie, combing themselves. ‘They appeared to be in a great measure nocturnal, preferring the twilight to the bright glare of day."

The Ornithorhynchus has never yet been brought alive to Kurope; but these and similar accounts