Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 1.djvu/109

Rh opinion maintained in an anonymous letter from Freyberg, published in the 4th volume of Mr. Nicholson’s Journal, are sufﬁcient to di- minish in any degree the value of that assistance which mineralogy derives from chemical investigation.

The specimen from which this description was taken, and which was exhibited to the Society at their Meeting, was brought from New South Wales. It is a male, probably arrived at its full growth. It is seventeen inches in length from the point of the bill to the ex- tremity of the tail ; and its greatest circumference measures likewise about seventeen inches. Its back and sides are covered with quills, the longest of which are about two inches and a half in length. Its bill projects from the head. one inch and three-fourths, tapering from its base, where it is seven-eighths of an inch in diameter to its point, where its diameter is not above three-eighths of an inch. It is tubular, convex on the upper, and ﬂat on the lower surface. The tongue is cylindrical. very small towards the point, and eight inches long. This species has a peculiarity in its mode of managing its food, which di- stinguishes it from the Paradoxus. The food is ﬁrst bruised by small horny prominences adhering to the tongue and palate, and then swal- lowed with a certain quantity of sand, the stomach being sufﬁciently large to contain this extraneous matter, together with the food, and effectually defended from injury by a cuticular lining.

Mr. Home proceeds, with his usual accuracy and minuteness, in his technical description, both of the external and internal parts, which he illustrates with a number of ﬁgures. Having completed this detail, he observes in general, that this species of Ornithorhyn- chus being a nearer approach to the more perfect quadruped than the Paradoxus, and its tongue being in some respects similar to those of the Mania and Myrmecophaga, he thought it necessary to look among the different species of these genera for other parts of resemblance. The result of this comparison is, that the Ornithorhynchus is essen- tially different from all other quadrupeds, bearing in some respects a resemblance to birds, and in others to the Amphibia, so that it may be considered as an intermediate link between the classes Mammalia, Aves, and Amphibia. To the ﬁrst class it no doubt approaches nearest in the instance of the Myrmecophaga; and to the birds it bears a singular aﬂinity in the male organs of generation, as is here illus- trated by comparing its penis with that of the drake.

From the whole of this investigation are deduced the following characters as peculiar to this animal, considered as a genus. The male has a spur on the two hind legs, close to the heel. The female has no nipples, differing essentially in this, as well as in the organs of generation, from the Mammalia. The beak is smooth, while the rest of the animal is covered with hair. The tongue has horny pro.-