Both the animal and vegetable creation in Australia, are wholly different from those in every other part of the world.
To show that the existence of a thing was not believed in, it was compared to a black swan, but in New Holland we find black swans, and blue frogs; red lobsters, and blue crabs; flying opossums, and beasts with bills like ducks; fish that hop about on dry land, and quadrupeds that lay eggs.
The quadrupeds hitherto discovered, with very few exceptions, are all of the kangaroo or opossum tribe; having their hinder legs long, out of all proportion when compared with the length of the fore legs, and a sack under the belly of the female for the reception of the young.
They have kangaroo rats, and dogs of the jackal kind, all exactly alike; and a little animal of the bear tribe, named the wombat, but the largest quadruped at present discovered is the kangaroo.
These pretty nearly complete the catalogue of four-footed animals yet known on this vast island.
There is, however, an animal which resembles nothing in the creation but itself, and which neither belongs to beast, bird or fish.
This animal is called the Duck-billed Platypus.
Of all the quadrupeds yet known, this seems the most extraordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect semblance of the beak of a duck on the head of a quadruped.