Having been favoured with a more minute and ornithological description of the elegant and novel bird mentioned in page 65* of the preceding sheets since they were sent to the press, it is here given.
[* . . . They brought in with them one of the birds which they had named pheasants, but which on examination appeared to be a variety of the Bird of Paradise.]
The bill of this bird, which has been named the Maenura superba, is straight, having the nostrils in the centre of the beak. The base of the upper mandible is furnished with hairs like feathers turning down; the upper mandible is at the base somewhat like that of the pigeon. The eye is a dark hazel, with a bare space around it. The throat and chin are of a dark rufous colour: the rest, with the body, of a dusky grey. The feathers on the rump are longer than those of the body, and more divided. The colour of the wings, which are concave, is dark rufous. The legs and claws are large in proportion to the bird, particularly the claws. The outward toe is connected with the middle one as far as the first joint. The tail is long, and composed of three different sorts of feathers, of which the upper side is of a dark grey, with ferruginous spots. The first two lower feathers, which are a little curved, in two directions, are beneath of a pearly colour, enriched with several crescent shaped spaces, of a rich rufous and black colour. The laminae are unwebbed, turned round toward the extremity, and ornamented with a black bar, the breadth of an inch, and fringed at the end. The shaft of the second, which is likewise long, is fringed with long hair-like filaments; and the third, which is also long and curved, is plumed on the inner side only, except at the extremity, where there are a few separated filaments of a dark grey colour.
The female Maenura superba differs very little from the male, except in the tail, which is composed of twelve feathers a little curved and plumed, having the upper side dark rufous and grey, and the under of a pearly colour.
The following curious particulars of these birds were observed by persons resident in the country, and who were eye-witnesses of what is here told.
They frequent retired and inaccessible parts of the interior; have been seen to run remarkably fast, but their tails are so cumbrous that they cannot fly in a direct line. They sing for two hours in the morning, beginning from the time when they quit the valley, until they attain the summit of the hill; where they scrape together a small hillock, on which they stand, with their tall spread over them, imitating successively the note of every bird known in the country. They then return to the valley.
The drawing from which the engraving is made was taken from a beautiful stuffed Maenura superba in the collection of Mr. Arthur Harrison (who also is in possession of a female Maenura superba), and which was presented to that gentleman by Governor Hunter.
The peculiar conformation of the amphibious animal mentioned on page 45 of this Volume, having attracted the attention of Everard Home, esq a paper, containing the result of a minute examination of the external and internal parts of two specimens which had been preserved in spirits, and sent from Port Jackson to Sir Joseph Banks was drawn up by Mr. Home, and, having been read before the Royal Society (on Thursday the 17th December 1801), was afterwards published in the Philosophical Transactions. From that paper, which was most obligingly and politely sent to me by Mr. Home, I have, through the liberality of the President of that learned body, been allowed to select such particulars of this curious animal, as will, I think, be acceptable to the readers of this work; who no doubt will join with me in rejoicing that an animal, hitherto unknown to science, should have fallen under the observation and examination of a gentleman so eminently qualified to develop the secrets of nature.
[* viz: "Although the settlement had now been established within a month of ten years, yet little had been added to the stock of natural history which had been acquired in the first year or two of its infancy. The Kangaroo, the Dog, the Opossum, the Flying Squirrel, the Kangaroo Rat, a spotted Rat, the common Rat, and the large Fox-bat (if entitled to a place in this society), made up the whole catalogue of animals that were known at this time, with the exception which must now be made of an amphibious animal, of the mole species, one of which had been lately found on the banks of a lake near the Hawkesbury. In size it was considerably larger than the land mole. The eyes were very small. The fore legs, which were shorter than the hind, were observed, at the feet, to be provided with four claws, and a membrane, or web, that spread considerably beyond them, while the feet of the hind legs were furnished, not only with this membrane or web, but with four long and sharp claws, that projected as much beyond the web, as the web projected beyond the claws of the fore feet. The tail of this animal was thick, short, and very fat; but the most extraordinary circumstance observed in its structure was, its having, instead of the mouth of an animal, the upper and lower mandibles of a duck. By these it was enabled to supply itself with food, like that bird, in muddy places, or on the banks of the lakes, in which its webbed feet enabled it to swim; while on shore its long and sharp claws were employed in burrowing; nature thus providing for it in its double or amphibious character. These little animals had been frequently noticed rising to the surface of the water, and blowing like the turtle.">[
The natural history of this animal, which has obtained the name of Ornithorhynchus paradoxus is at present very little known. The following particulars were communicated to Mr. Home by Governor Hunter, who, during his residence in New South Wales, had opportunities of seeing the animal alive.