t replied the Platypus, contemptuously, Humans are
so ignorant! That's because they are so new. When they have existed a
few more million years, they will be more like us of old families;
they will respect quiet, exclusive living, like that of the
Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus, and will not be so inquisitive, pushing, and
dangerous as now. The age will come when they will understand, and
will cease to write books, and there will be peace for everyone."

The Kangaroo now thought it a good opportunity to change the subject,
and gently introduced the topic of Dot's lost way, saying how she had
found the little girl, and had taken care of her ever since.

The Platypus did not seem interested, and yawned more than once whilst
the Kangaroo spoke.

"The question is," concluded the Kangaroo, "whom shall I ask to find
it? Someone must know where it is."

"Of course," said the Platypus, yawning again, without so much as
putting its web foot in front of its bill, which Dot thought very rude,
or else very ancient manners. "Little Human," it said, "tell me what
kind of bush creatures come about your burrow."

"We live in a cottage," she said, but seeing that the Platypus did not
like to be corrected, and that the Kangaroo looked quite shocked at her
doing so, she hurriedly described the creatures she had seen there.
She said there were Crickets, Grasshoppers, Mice, Lizards, Swallows,
Opossums, Flying Foxes, Kookooburras, Magpies, and Shepherd's
Companions----

"Stop!" interrupted the Platypus, with a wave of its web foot; "that is
the right one."

"Who?" asked the Kangaroo and Dot anxiously, together.

"The bird you call Shepherd's Companion. Some of you call it Rickety
Dick, or Willy Wagtail." Turning to the Kangaroo especially, it
continued, "If you can bring yourself to speak to anything so obtrusive
and gossiping, without any ancestry or manners whatever, you will be
able to learn all you need from that bird. Humans and Wagtails
fraternise together. They're both post-glacial."

"I knew you could advise me," said the Kangaroo gratefully.

"Oh! Platypus, how clever you are!" cried Dot, clapping her hands.

Directly Dot had spoken she saw that she had offended the queer little
creature before her. It raised itself with an air of offended dignity
that was unmistakable.

"The name Platypus is insulting," it remarked, looking at the child
severely, "it means BROAD-FOOTED, a vulgar pseudonym which could only
have em