Volume 30, Plate XXXIV / Mammalia (Mammals)
Ornithorhynchus
Ornithorhynchus paradoxus, Platypus anatinus
An aquatic, burrowing animal about eighteen to twenty inches long, the body depressed and tapering at both ends, with a small head developed into a flat, leathery, duck like beak fringed by free flexible membrane and bearing only four horny molars. The eyes and ear orifices are small, the legs very short, both feet webbed for swimming and digging, the hind heel armed with a stout pointed spur, the dense fur water repellent.