AMONG the wonders brought to light by the early adventurers in New Holland, was an animal which excited more wonder than any similar discovery during many years previously or since. That region indeed was full of wonderful forms, and strangely, most of the animals and vegetables were of such strange comparatives as to form connecting links between important sections of their respective departments of nature. The Kangaroo and Opossum for instance, connected the mammalia with the birds and reptiles, inasmuch as that its young are produced in a half-formed state, more in the state of half-hatched eggs, than in the ordinary complete state of quadrupeds. But another creature was found of still more remarkable structure, named the Ornithorhyncus, or duck-billed Platypus. Nowhere but in the Australian continent and Van Diemen's Land was this creature found, and the strange anomalies of its organization seemed to mark it most specially as the product of that strange and exceptional region. The Ornithorhyncus (so named from its bird-like bill), is an animal of such extraordinary aspect, that the specimen first brought to this country, at the end of the last century, was supposed to have been made up, by the attachment of the beak and feet of a bird to the body of an otter-like quadruped. It was not until other specimens had arrived, and had been submitted to most careful examination, that naturalists were satisfied of the real existence of such an animal. Since that period, its true place in the scale, depending upon the mode in which it produces and nourishes its young, has been a most fertile source of controversy; but the question may now be regarded as set at rest by the inquiries of Professor Owen, who has discovered its real mammalian character, and arranged it in an order called Monotremata. Dr. Shaw describes it as being covered with a short thick fur, dark brown above, and reddish white underneath. The mouth or snout so exactly resembles that of some species of broad-billed duck, that it might be mistaken for such: the tail is flat, furry, and obtuse, and about three inches in length. The legs are very short, and the feet terminate in a broad web, which on the fore-feet reaches to a considerable distance beyond the claws; but on the hind-feet no further than the roots of the claws. There is no appearance of teeth; and the mouth in every respect resembles that of a duck. Here then is a creature possessing the attributes of the duck and the quadruped, and we have only to wait till it takes water, to see that something of the fish belongs to it also. When alarmed, it takes to the water immediately, and dives with great address. Eel-like it glides along, duck-like it seeks its food in the mud on the banks and bottoms of the streams, and quadruped-like it produces its young alive, and suckles them. Its whole organisation is evidently designed to adapt it for seeking its food in the water, and for chiefly inhabiting that element; and what is known of its habits fully confirms this view. It burrows in the banks of rivers, and seeks its food in precisely the same manner as the duck. River insects, small shellfish, and waterplants, appear to constitute its nourishment. So far the bird and the mammal are linked together by a creature endowed with striking features peculiar to both. But mark, the Platypus is at last a mammal or true quadruped. To bring the two departments still nearer together, Nature will produce the same anomaly in the bird kingdom, as we have just witnessed in the mammalian." Here is a creature of the bird kind which puzzles us as much as the Platypus, and seems to possess almost equal claims to each of the respective divisions. Is it a bird? It has the look of a bird, but if we examine its structure we shall see few of the bird attributes. The true bird has no diaphragm, that is the membrane or muscle which separates the chest from the abdomen, but this creature has the diaphragm complete. The true bird has hollow bones and numerous air-cells in various parts of its body, in order to render it of less weight for flight, and maintain energetic vitality under the trying circumstances of flight. The Apteryx has solid bones and no air-cells, and is so strangely fitted up in this respect as to be utterly incapable of the very bird-like faculty of flying. It has a bill which is truly ornithological, but it has no wings, or rather it has rudimentary joints where wings should be, each of which is terminated by a hook, as if hands would some day grow there; and these hooky appendages it flaps about with as much pride as if they were eagles' pinions, and now and then finds them of real service in its own defence. Lastly, it is destitute of the first estate which an ordinary observer would expect a bird to have: it has no feathers, but is covered from head to stern with shaggy hair, so as most effectually to shut itself out of the society of all feathered bipeds in a * See the Apteryx, page 32. a world where the cut of the garments is an universal certificate. The size of this bird is about that of a domestic fowl, and its colour a deep brown. It runs with rapidity and defends itself vigorously with its feet. It is nocturnal in its time of action, and subsists on insects. Its native name is kivi-kivi, derived from its cry. In these creatures we have evidences of that restless activity in nature by which every possible variety of the primitive types is filled up; so that there is no department of nature, no possible deviation from a standard form, but has its representative and life in multitudinous forms without end. THE WANDERER FOUND. Ar the age of seventeen, Charles Grant was a stout, strong, active youth. He was more than ordinarily ambitious, but as his ambition had not full scope, he was restless, and I sometimes thought unhappy. Had his mother, at this critical era of his life, been able to find him some employment suitable to his active and ambitious genius, it would have been fortunate indeed; but she knew of none; and besides, she needed his aid,-and more than all, she was alone, and felt that she could not dispense with his company. scenes. About this time, a young sailor by the name of Thornton, belonging to the neighbourhood, arrived home from a voyage. Charles naturally fell in his way, and was delighted with the story of his adventures. He listened long and intently. His age and circumstances combined in his ambitious bosom the desire for similiar exciting Without designing any special wrong, young Thornton at length proposed to Charles to accompany him on his next voyage, which he should commence in a few weeks. For a time he hesitated, or rather declined,his mother and Alice would never consent, and to leave them by stealth was more than he felt willing to do. Thornton did not urge him, as it afterwards appeared, but Charles was himself strongly inclined to go, while the young sailor was quite willing to have a friend and companion so bright and enterprising as Charles Grant. In an evil hour the latter decided to go and to go without the knowledge of his mother. On the night appointed for their departure, Charles rose from his bed when all was still, and softly feeling his way to the door, opened it and escaped. It was a beautiful night; and as he proceeded round the corner of the house to get a small bundle of clothes which he had concealed the day before, his heart beat with unusual violence, and for a few moments a faintness came over him at the thought of leaving a mother and sister, the only objects on earth whom he had ever truly loved. He stopped for a moment, as if meditating a better resolution, and then proceeded to the gate, which he opened, and went out. Here he again paused, turned, looked, lingered,-hesitated, and even put his hand again to the latchet, half resolved to creep once more to his little bed-room. But at that moment the low call of Thornton, at some distance, reached his ear, he had lingered longer than he was aware, and now the moment had arrived when he must go, if at all. With a sort of desperation of feeling he hastened away, the tears trickling down his cheeks, as he bade adieu to the humble cottage which contained all he loved on earth. His bundle was under his arm, and in that bundle, I am --- |