Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/570

* DUCKBILL. 4'.t6 DTJCKWITZ. down liy friction with toml anil sand, arc shed from the mouth in the same manner as are the milk-teeth of other niiimnials." 'I'he corneous ridjies yrow up around them and take their place. These facts arc rej;ardcer- sistent teeth of the ordinary kind. The tongue is small, non-extensile, partly covered with horny spines, and '"has a projection toward its hinder part which serves to direct the food col- lected into two larfTc cheek-pouches" where it can be stored and conveniently carrii'd to the hur- row or some other comfortable eatintrplace. The duckbill is aquatic and a burrower. and its skeleton shows ailaptatioii to these hal)ils in the great strenfrth of the bones of the limbs and of tilt pectoral {-irdle. The Ic-js arc short, the fore feet have each five tix>s. with strong burrowing claws, and a connecting memlirane for swimming, which extends even beyond the claws, but is capable of being folded back, so as not to impede their use in burrowing. The hind feet are smaller than the fore feet : they have each five toes armed with claws, and webbed, but the web does not ex- tend beyond the base of the daws. The tail is strong, broad, and llattened, about half as long as the body, covered with longer and coarser liairs. and nearly naked on its under surface. An interesting feature is the strong horny spurs on the heels of the male, which are movable and traversed by a minute canal opening at the point, and connected at the base with the duct from a large gland at the back part of the thigh. The popular belief that those si)urs were venomous, to which this fang-like stnu-ture gave sujiport, has been confirmed by the record of a case by Spicer ("On the effects of wounds on the hiiman subject indicted by the spurs of the platypus." in i'roceidiiigs of the Itoi/al Society of Tasnuinin. Hobart Town, 1870). of a man who suffered precisely as if locally poisoned, following a wound "from the spurs of a captive duckbill. However, as the male alone possesses these ap- pendages, they are i)robably used mainly in the cond)ats of the nuptial season. H.vniT.s. The duckbill is as thoroughly aipmtie as a beaver, spending its whole life in or near rivers, but not frequenting stagnant pools nor brackish estnaries. It swims chiefiy by flipper- like movements of the webbed fiue feet, and (lives with ease and grace. It is somewhat gregarious, but so shy as rarely to be seen even where numerous, "unless quietly watched for at evening, when they "look like so many black bottles float- ing on the surface, and sink down directly if alarmed." Kach pair digs and occupies a burrow in the bank, having usually one oi)ening beneath the water and another above it. which may run irregularly away and upward from the stream for ten or fifteen yards before it suits the owners to enlarge it into' a chamber bedded with dry grass, where they sleep, ndled up in a ball, most of the day, and "where the yiouig are produced. The evil smell of these burrows is notorious in Aus- tralia. These aninuils rarely go ashore, and when they do so waddle about with a curious slipshod gait: yet those in captivity, where they exhibit docility and intellig<'nce.elindi about the furniture of a room with surprising agility. "The food con- sists of aquatic insects, small crustaceans and worms, which are caught under water, the sand and small stones at the bottom being turned over with the bill. The creatures appear at first to de- posit what they have thus collected intheircheek- pouches, and when these are filled tlu-y rise to the surface and cpiietly triturate their meal with the horny plates before swaHow ing it." This food is discovered in the nuid not only by an extreme sensitiveness to touch of the margin of the bill, but by smell, of which those studied in captivity show a renuirkably high development. The eyes are small and half hid<len, but perfect and useful. The duckbill's voice resembles the growl of a young puppy, but the animal's disposition is gentle. t»viP.Rois Eepkodi CTio.v. The duckbill, like other mimotremes, actually lays eggs from which the young are hatched — a fact long disputed, and doubtfully believed by the aborigines, who wen' well ac(piainled with the havints and liabits of the animal, which they sought both as food and for its skin. The eggs arc white, three-fourths ot an inch long by one-half an inch broad, the shell is soft and flexible, and they contain a large amount of food-yolk, as in birds' eggs. Only a few egi.'s are laid at a time, often only one, and it is hatched very soon after it is laid. The mother has no nijjples, but has milk-glands open- ing into little pits -so that the young seem to be sickled by the ejection of the milk into their nuiuths, which in this early stage are smooth and fleshy. The young are blind and naked at 1)irlh. HluuotiR.vpilY. l?esides the treatises mentioned above, consult various articles by Owen in the 'rriiiixiictioiis of the Philosophical and Zoidogieal Societies of London (London. IS.^'i-:^): Flower and l.ydekkcr. M) : Bennett, flatherimjs »f a Xnlnrnlist in Austrolia (Lonilon. 1806). See Monotreme: and compare Ecillll.NA. DUCK-BILLED CAT. Sec P.duij:-Fisii. DUCK-HAWK. Ihe peregrine. See Falco.n-. DUCKING-STOOL. A rude device, formerly in usi' in lircal I'.ritain and in ])arts of the liiilcil States, for the punishment of conunon scolds (q.v.). It consisted of a rough, strong chair attached to one end of a beam, which worked on a pivot on a post at the edge of a ],ond or stream of water. The woman was placed in the chair with her arms drawn backward: a bar was placed across her back and in front of her elbows, another bar held her upright, and there were cords to tie her securely in. The execiitors of the punishnienl then took hold of a chain at the opposite end, and gave hi-r a duck- ing on the '.see-saw' principle. A ducking-stool
 * 7s in use for actual ducking at Leominster as

late as HOO. DUCKWITZ. duk'vUs, Arnold (1802-81). A (Jermaii politician. lie was born in Bremen, where. after travels through ICngland ami the Ni-therlaiids, he bwanie distinguisheil as the tcuemost promoter of shipbuilding and naviga- tion in (iermany. He strongly advised the crea- tion of a German customs union, and the harbor improvements of Bremen were also due largely to his initiative. The innovations were folli>we(l by the establishment of a steamship line between Bremen and New York, ami the <onclusion of a favorable jmslal treaty with the I'nited States. As lin]H'rial Minister of Com- merce and Xaval Affairs, to which positions he