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
