f my front feet can expand,
they can also contract; see! as narrow and refined as a bird's claw.
Observe, too, that my hind feet are narrow, and like a seal's fin,
though it has been described as a mole's foot."

As the Platypus spoke, and thrust out its strangely different feet, the
Kangaroo edged a little closer to Dot and whispered in her ear. "It's
getting angry, and is beginning to use long words; do be careful what
you say or it will be terrible!"

"I beg your pardon," said Dot; "I did not wish to hurt your feelings,
Para--, Pa--ra--dox--us."

"_Ornithorhynchus_ Paradoxus, if you please," insisted the little
creature. "How would you like it if your name was Jones-Smith-Jones, and
I called you one Jones, or one Smith, and did not say both the Jones and
the Smiths? You have no idea how sensitive our race is. You Humans have
no feelings at all compared with ours. Why! my fifth pair of nerves are
larger than a man's! Humans get on my nerves dreadfully!" it ended in
disgusted accents.

"She did not mean to hurt you," said the gentle Kangaroo, soothingly.
"Is there anything we can do to make you feel comfortable again?"

"There is nothing you can do," sighed the Platypus, now mournful and
depressed. "I must sing. Only music can quiet my nerves. I will sing a
little threnody composed by myself, about the good old days of this
world before the Flood." And as it spoke, the Platypus moved into an
upright position amongst the tussock grass, and after a little cough
opened its bill to sing.

The Kangaroo kept very close to Dot, and warned her to be very attentive
to the song, and not to interrupt it on any account. Almost before the
Kangaroo had ceased to whisper in her ear, Dot heard this strange song,
sung to the most peculiar tune she had ever heard, and in the funniest
of little squeaky voices.

The fairest Iguanodon reposed upon the shore;
Extended lay her beauteous form, a hundred feet and more.
The sun, with rays flammivomous, beat on the blue-black sand;
And sportive little Saurians disported on the strand;
But oft the Iguanodon reproved them in their glee,
And said, "Alas! this Saurian Age is not what it should be!"

Then, forth from that archaic sea, the Ichthyosaurus
Uprose upon his finny wings, with neocomian fuss,
"O Iguanodon!" he cried, as he approached the shore,
"Why art thou thus dysthynic, love? Come, rise with me, and soar,
Or leave these estuarian seas, and wander in the