"The <i>Ornithorhynchus</i> is known to the colonists by the nme of the watermole, from some resemblance which it is supposed to bear to the common European mole (<i>Talpa Europoea</i>, Linn.)"
1860. G. Bennett, `Gatherings of a Naturalist,' p. 95:
"When first a preserved skin was sent to England, it excited great distrust, being considered a fraud upon the naturalist. . . It was first described and figured by Shaw in the year 1799, in the `Naturalist's Miscellany,' vol. x., by the name of <i>Platypus anatinus</i>, or Duck-billed Platypus, and it was noticed in Collins's `New South Wales' 2nd ed. [should be vol. ii. <i>not</i> 2nd ed.], 4to. p. 62, 1802, where it is named <i>Ornithorhyncus paradoxus</i>, Blum. . . There is a rude figure given of this animal in Collins's work."
1884. Marcus Clarke, `Memorial Volume,' p. 177:
"The Platypus Club is in Camomile Street, and the Platypi are very haughty persons."
1890. `Victorian Statutes—the Game Act' (Third Schedule):
[Close Season.] "Platypus. The whole year."
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 30:
"In the Dee river . . . I observed several times the remarkable platypus (<i>Ornithorhynchus anatinus</i>) swimming rapidly about after the small water-insects and vegetable particles which constitute its food. It shows only a part of its back above water, and is so quick in its movements that it frequently dives under water before the shot can reach it."
1891. `Guide to Zoological Gardens, Melbourne':