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Show 1877.] MR. G. F. BENNETT ON ORNITHORHYNCHUS. 165 hand side measuring at the entrance 10 inches wide, 8 high, and 10 long. I then continued to dig about 6 feet more, when I came upon another chamber with an opening of 10 inches. In this chamber, which measured 18 inches long, 8 inches high, and 12 wide, I found, to m y delight, two young ones, their skins of a bluish tint with a glossy appearance, as if a down were coming over them, and measuring 4^ inches from the beak to the tip of the tail. They had not got their eyes opened; but I resolved to try if they could swim at all; so I obtained a tin dish which would hold about a depth of water of 8 inches, and I put one in at a time. They swam on vigorously, but could not keep their heads above the water, although they made great efforts to do so. After they had been about 25 seconds in the water, I took them out and returned them to their nests, perfectly satisfied that up to this time they had never been in the water. The young Platypi were taken from the nest about noon on the 19th of November, and had no food given to them until Monday night, about 9 P.M., when they had a little milk sweetened with sugar, and lukewarm. They took about a teaspoonful each. The plan adopted to feed them was to insert one teaspoon into the mouth and gradually pour the milk from another into it. They were fed regularly three times daily, and appeared healthy and lively to the time of their death, which happened about midday on Wednesday the 22nd of November, within an hour of each other. Every care was taken to keep them warm: they were placed in a box in their natural nest with an addition of wool ; the light was excluded, leaving a sufficient circulation of air. The day before their death, when the beak was placed in the spoon containing the milk, they appeared to lap it up. They did not waste away, but were quite plump when they died. They were very restless at night, keeping moving about the box ; in the day-time they were nearly always asleep. After death they decomposed so rapidly that I was notable to put them in spirits. " ' One peculiarity in the burrows laid open was that the side-chambers, with only one exception, were situated on the right-hand side, and slightly higher than the main track of the burrow. The use of these chambers I cannot comprehend; for even when I have found nests, these chambers show no signs of having been used, even at any remote period, as they have nothing left in them, not even a bit of grass. I believe that the reason why I have as yet been unable to capture any of the old animals, in the nest or in the burrows, has been that I have commenced operations too early in the morning, before they have returned from their excursions in search of food; but on this and other subjects connected with the economy of these singular animals I hope next season to effect some more interesting discoveries, as this time I was ignorant and did not know how to commence exactly and had to work without any of the blacks. In the burrow shown in the second sketch (fig. 2), the nest was much deeper under the ground than in the first (fig. 1), being fully 4 feet from the surface of the ground (the other being 2 feet) and through a very hard sandy soil. Having taken the level of the hole from the water-surface, found that it was 22 feet; so that it would be a good flood that |