A STRANGE CAPTURE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12498, 26 March 1909, Page 4

A STRANGE CAPTURE.

* Something of a sensation was cavso:l in Messrs WiUisV quarry, yards, South Richmond- (says a late ■ Melbourne, paper), by therdiscovery of a young duck 'billed platj'pus (genus Ornithorhyncus' iparadoxus): It appears that the antics of a small furry 'creature 'in the short herbage at the side of an. open drain running into the . Yarra arrested the. attention r of I one of the workmen. Upon examining tho creature more closely he saw that, while it possessed . the bilhof a duck, it ■ progressed with wonderful celerity on -all fours, and as he had never seen" such a thing before, he nailed Mr. S., "Willis, who lost no time in effecting -its capture ;. Feeling somewhat at a loss as to what to do with " itj ; ~and " ass'umiiig : that it would, he' quite at home in the water, Mr Willis , promptlj' consigned it to a buqlretful of water and rang up the Zoolbgical Gardens. Mr le. Souef was greatly interested in the discovery, but was- also anxious to know if it was still alive-T-in the circumstances. Receiving ari ariswe'r in the affirmative;- he ordered its prompt removal to a; small* box containing straw. This

was done, and the "paradoxus" was removed to the Zoo. It appears that efforts to keep the platypus alive in confinement have hitherto been unsuccessful, owing to inability to provide it with its natural sustenance, and its life is generally reckoned at a few weeks' duration. For that reason it is stated that a platypus landded alive in London would be worth about £100. The only explanation of tho presence of the platypus in the quarry yard appears to be that it had followed the course of the river from its upper reaches and turned into the open drain.