CHAPTER XII
the baby duck-billed platypus and echidna
FROM Australia, the Land of Topsy-Turvy, comes the Duck-billed Platypus. In appearance, our duck-billed friend is a contradiction of all a self-respecting animal should be. He is about the size of a prairie dog with soft, dark brown fur similar to an otter's, but instead of having a perfectly proper mouth and feet, as should be expected of him, he contradicts our expectations and shocks us by having a bill like a duck, webbed feet, and lays eggs like a bird, leaving us mystified and wondering which he is—bird or beast?
The mother Platypus lays her eggs in a burrow, and broods them like a bird. The eggs are two in number, measuring three inches in length by two-thirds of an inch in diameter. The shells of the eggs are flexible, like snake or turtle egg shells.
She selects the bank of a deep fresh water pool for her nest, her habits being much like our friend the muskrat's. Under these happy conditions the babies are hatched.
Can you imagine anything more amazing than to witness such an astounding revelation as a four-legged animal emerging from an egg shell? But the Platypus doesn't stop at this point. She takes the helpless, blind and hairless little baby, with his stumpy little beak, to her breast and suckles it, thus proving herself to be a full-fledged mammal.
The development of the babies is wonderful to witness. They grow a coat of soft dark brown fur, which in due time is protected by an outer coat of stiff, dark, wiry hair. For a time the bill of the Platypus is armed with teeth of a very peculiar shape, found in no other animal. The skin around and under the teeth rapidly hardens until it becomes a horny-like substance, by which time the roots are absorbed and the crowns are shed. After this unusual process has taken place, the creature grinds its food by means of the horny pads which constitute the bill.
The food is finely crushed by means of the
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| Permission of New York Zoological Society |
| This spiny Echidna has the body of a porcupine, but the bill of a bird, and lays eggs. Is it a bird or beast or a Chinese puzzle?. |
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| After the National Geographic Magazine |
| The Duck-billed Platypus has the body of an otter, the bill of a duck, and webbed feet; it builds a nest and lays eggs. It also has the pouch of a kangaroo and as soon as its new-born four-footed babies are hatched it picks them up with its bill and puts them in its pouch for safety. What's the answer? |
The baby Platypus is full of fun and as playful as a kitten.
The developed Platypus is thirteen inches in length, with a tail five inches long, and is about as large as a prairie dog.
The front feet are webbed quite beyond the ends of the toes, and when this fellow digs, the outer web is rolled well back underneath the foot so as to expose the claws. The hind feet are webbed only to the claws, and each is armed with a long, sharp spur, said to be connected with a poison gland.
The tail is broad and flattened, covered with hair on the upper side and nearly naked below.
The Platypus is found in Australia only.
The Echidna is first cousin to the Platypus, and second cousin to the Kangaroo. There are two groups of Echidna—the five-toed, which inhabit Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea; and the three-toed, which comprise two species and are found only in New Guinea.
The bodies of the five-toed group are set with spines, similar to a porcupine. They have long slender beaks, which they use with dexterity.
The Echidna has a pouch or deep pocket in her body like the Kangaroo. She lays eggs, two in number, picks them up with her beak and drops them in her pouch, where they are hatched. After the babies are out of the shells, they are suckled in the pouch.
I suggest to anxious parents, who earnestly desire to keep the small boy out of mischief, that they import a Platypus or Echidna from Topsy-Turvy Land, where the habits and appearance of the animals are as contrary to our expectations as that most interesting land itself.