Europe. The poisonous nature of a wound from the spur
of the male was well known to the aborigines, but was
disputed by some persons, although the orifice in the spur
indicated a purpose. Moreover, it was at certain periods
only that venom was believed by the natives to be emitted.[1]
The dog of the mainland was not found in the island.
Most of the birds, and even the emu, were common in both places. The fish most highly prized by epicures–the trumpeter—was found only on the island coasts, and most frequently at the south; but whiting, flounders, and garfish vindicated the excellence of the fish of the sea, while in the Murray and other rivers of Australia the cod-fish, a gigantic perch, was esteemed by some as a delicacy.
Snakes were so numerous that when Lady Franklin (the wife of a governor), to rid Tasmania of them, offered a shilling for each snake killed, no less than 14,000 were produced in one year. Where lagoons abounded, and on moist margins of rivers in Australia, snakes were always numerous. In both countries the hawk tribe destroyed them. One in Australia, a keen but small brown bird, seemed to take pleasure in the dangerous sport. Darting down, he seized the snake near the head with his talons, and spreading his wings, the tips touching the ground, with firm but quivering tension, prevented the coils of the snake from involving him, and thus clutched his victim till
- ↑ Profeesor Owen was much interested when informed by the author of an instance in which a native was wounded in the wrist by the spur of the platypus. Faintness followed, and the arm and glands were swollen for many days, A wasting of the arm succeeded, and some weeks elapsed before it resumed its power. When recovered, the man asked the author if he wanted any skins of the platypus as he was about to avenge himself. He succeeded (going alone in a bark canoe) in killing several in one afternoon in the river Murnimbidgee, Professor W. H. Flower, in describing the platypus, wrote:—"On the heel of the male is a strong, curved, sharply pointed, movable, thorny spur directed upwards and backwards, attached by its expanded base to the accessory bone of the tarsus. This spur, which attains the length of nearly an inch, is traversed by a minute canal, terminating in a fine longitudinal slit near the point, and connected at its base with the duct of a large gland situated at the back part of the thigh." The natives were so well acquainted with the power of the spur that they seldom suffered from it. The anthors friend was wounded while drawing to the edge of a canoe a platypus he had speared. A companion made a movemont which nearly upset the canoe, and in balancing his frail bark the spearman received his wound. He secured his prey.
