"During part of June and July I spent many hours daily in the water, hunting everywhere for the eggs of Ceratodus. Towards the end of July the blacks began to collect Echidna, and very soon I had segmenting ova from the uterus. In the second week of August I had similar stages in Ornithorhynchus, but it was not until the third week that I got the laid eggs from the pouch of Echidna. In the following week (August 24) I shot an Ornithorhynchus whose first egg had been laid; her second egg was in a partially dilated os uteri. This egg, of similar appearance to, though slightly larger than, that of Echidna, was at a stage equal to a 36-hour chick. (Caldwell 1888, p. 464)"