Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . completely vindi-cated, and it has been found that the half was not of living organisms, both vegetable and animal, seemconstructed upon a different plan from those we are accus-tomed to see, and science shows that they are more nearlyakin to the extinct forms of the old geological ages thanto the present flora and fauna of the great continents. 2. In some specimens of animal life there is such a 378 NATURAL HISTORY READER. strange mixture of different species, and sometimes of dif•fer
Glimpses of the animate world; or, Science and literature of natural history, for school and home . completely vindi-cated, and it has been found that the half was not of living organisms, both vegetable and animal, seemconstructed upon a different plan from those we are accus-tomed to see, and science shows that they are more nearlyakin to the extinct forms of the old geological ages thanto the present flora and fauna of the great continents. 2. In some specimens of animal life there is such a 378 NATURAL HISTORY READER. strange mixture of different species, and sometimes of dif•ferent orders—a mixture of beast, bird, reptile, and fish—that it would seem as if Nature, in a jocose mood and withabroad grin upon her countenance, had purposely formedliving conundrums to excite curiosity and prove the de-spair of science. (Some of these strange forms are rankedas beasts and some as birds, as the mixed characteristicspredominate in one direction or the other. 3. One of these creatures is ranked as a mammal, and isfamiliarly called the duck-bill. In science it is known as. The Ornithorhynclius. the ornithorhynclius, or the beast with a bill, and it is cer-tainty a marvel in structure and habits. It has a broad,flat body, with four short legs, the feet terminating in fivetoes armed with sharp claws, and is about the size of awoodchuck. It is clothed with a coat of fine fur, darkbrown above and whitish below. At the end of long bur-rows in the river-banks they make uests of leaves and grass,where they deposit their eggs from which the young are STRANGE ANIMALS AND THEIR WATS. 379 reared. It can walk and run rapidly on the land and climbtrees. So far, it is quite like many of the mammals. 4. Its toes are webbed, and, when spread out, the mem-brane reaches beyond their extremities. Its tail is broadand flat, serving as in the water. But its mostpeculiar feature is a broad, flat bill, which gives to it itspopular name of duck-bill. Its bony structure i
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