a Mole, with a bill like a Duck.
Hence its other names of <i>Duck-bill</i> or <i>Duck-Mole</i>.
It has received various names--<i>Platypus anatinus</i>,
<i>Duck-billed Platypus</i>, <i>Ornithorhynchus</i>,
<i>Ornithorhynchus paradoxus</i>, <i>Paradoxus</i>,
<i>Water-mole</i>, etc. (Grk. <i>platus</i> = broad,
<i>pous</i> = foot, <i>'ornithos</i> = of a bird,
<i>runchos</i> = beak or bill.) The name <i>Platypus</i>
is now the name by which it is always popularly known in
Australia, but see quotation from Lydekker below (1894).
From the British Museum Catalogue of Marsupials and Monotremes
(1888), it will be found that the name <i>Platypus</i>, given
by Shaw in 1799, had been preoccupied as applied to a beetle
by Herbst in 1793. It was therefore replaced, in scientific
nomenclature, by the name <i>Ornithorhynchus</i>, by Blumenbach
in 1800. In view of the various names, vernacular and
scientific, under which it is mentioned by different writers,
all quotations referring to it are placed under this word,
<i>Platypus</i>. The habits and description of the animal
appear in those quotations. From 1882 to 1891 the
<i>Platypus</i> figured on five of the postage stamps of
Tasmania.

1802. G. Barrington, `History of New South Wales,' c. xi.
p. 425:

"This animal, which has obtained the name of <i>Ornithorhynchus
paradoxus</i>, is still very little known."

1802. D. Collins, `Account of English Colony in New South
Wales,' vol. ii. p. 35:

[List of Engravings.]
"<i>Ornithorhynchus paradoxus</i>."

[At p. 63]:

<i>"Ornithorhynchus</i> (an amphibious animal of the mole
kind)."

1809. G. Shaw, `Zoological Lecturer,' vol. i. p. 78:

"This genus, which at present consists but of a single species
and its supposed varieties, is distinguished by the title of
<i>Platypus</i> or <i>Ornithorhynchus</i>. . . Its English
generic name of duckbill is that by which it is commonly
known."

1815. `History of New South Wales' (1818), p. 447:

"In the reaches or pools of the Campbell River, the very
curious animal called the paradox, or watermole, is seen in
great numbers."

1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,'
vol. i. p. 325:

"I cannot omit to mention likewise the <i>Ornithorynchus</i>,
that remarkable animal which forms a link between the bird and
beast, having a bill like a duck and paws webbed similar to
that bird, but legs and body like those of a quadruped,
covered with thick coarse hair, with