Duck-Bill (Duck-billed Platypus)

Plate XXXVII: Ornithorhynchus anatinus "Male markedly larger than female; fur of two kinds, the longer crisp, shining, and sometimes curly and the under-fur short, soft and woolly. Length of head and body of male about 18 inches; of tail 6 inches; the head and body of the female being about 4, and the tail 2 inches shorter. It will be generally found in the description of the Duck-bill, Duck-Mole, or Water-Mole, as the animal is indifferently called, that the covering of the beak is stated to be of a horny or leathery nature....However, that is not the case with the living animal, in which the muzzle is covered with a soft skin, comparable to that investing the nose of a Dog, and richly supplied with tactile nerves. Distribution.- Queensland to the south of latitude 18 deg., New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. History and habits.- The Duck-Bill was originally described under the name Platypus anitinus, which was Anglicised into Duck-billed Platypus, but since the generic name had been previously employed for another group of animals, it had, by the rules of zoological nomenclature, to give place to the later Ornithorhynchus."