Notes on the natural history and habits of the ornithorhynchus paradoxus, Blum / by George Bennett

Creator
Bennett, George, 1804-1893
Call Number
Sq 590.6 ZOO (v. 1)
Created/Published
[London : The Zoological Society], [1835]
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31
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XXVI. Notes on the Natural History and Habits of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus,  

Blum. By GEORGE BENNETT, Esq., F.L.S., Corr. Memb. Z.S.  

Communicated May 27, 1834.  

In the commencement of the year 1829, when first arrived in the Colony of New  

South Wales, my attention was directed towards two points of Natural Science which  

were at that time desiderata—one the mode of generation of the Kangaroo, to explain  

in what manner the young are brought into connexion with the nipple—and the other  

the mode of generation and habits of the animal which forms the subject of the present  

communication.  

To all the inquiries made of persons long resident in the Colony, could only pro-  

cure very unsatisfactory replies. found then, as also found on my subsequent and  

second visit to the Colony, that the majority preferred forming theories of their own  

and arguing on their plausibility, to devoting few leisure days to the collection of facts  

by which the questions might be set at rest for ever. At this time voyage of great  

interest to me, among the Islands of the Polynesian Archipelago and to New Zealand,  

prevented my devoting the time which had at first intended to employ in attempting  

the discovery and elucidation of those doubtful points; and left New South Wales in  

March 1829, expecting that before my return to England some intelligent person resi-  

dent in the Colony would devote himself to the task and determine them by actual  

observation. On my return to England, however, in April 1831, found that all the  

questions relative to those animals still remained in the same undecided state, excepting  

that my friend Mr. Owen had succeeded in injecting with mercury the ducts of the  

supposed mammary glands of the Omithorhynchus; communication on which subject,  

as have seen since leaving England in 1832, he has laid before the Royal Society.  

again left England for the Colony of New South Wales in May 1832, and soon  

after my arrival there in August visited the interior of the country, and devoted much  

time to the investigation of the habits and oeconomy of these animals in their native  

haunts.  

The Omithorhynchus is known to the colonists by the name of Water-Mole, from  

some resemblance which it is supposed to bear to the common European Mole, Talpa  

Europeea, Linn.: by the native tribes at Bathurst and Goulburn Plains, and in the  

Yas, Murrumbidgee, and Tumat countries, universally found it designated by the  

name of Mallangong or Tambreet; but the latter is more in use among them than the  

former.  

The body of this singular animal is depressed in form, and in some degree partakes  

 

229  

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APA citation

Bennett, George. (1835). Notes on the natural history and habits of the ornithorhynchus paradoxus, Blum Retrieved May 2, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-47884219

MLA citation

Bennett, George. Notes on the natural history and habits of the ornithorhynchus paradoxus, Blum [London: The Zoological Society], 1835. Web. 2 May 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-47884219>

Harvard/Australian citation

Bennett, George. 1835, Notes on the natural history and habits of the ornithorhynchus paradoxus, Blum The Zoological Society], [London viewed 2 May 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-47884219

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=Bennett, George.
  | title=Notes on the natural history and habits of the ornithorhynchus paradoxus, Blum
  | year=1835
  | section=p. 229-258, [1] leaf of plates : ill. ; 31cm.
  | location=[London
  | publisher=The Zoological Society]
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-47884219
  | id=nla.obj-47884219
  | access-date=2 May 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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