Emily Dickinson Lexicon

OR'NITH-OR-RHYNCH'US, n. [Gr. ορνις, ορνιθος, a fowl, and ρυγχος, a beak.]

An effodient monotrematous mammal, with a horny beak resembling that of a duck, and two merely fibrous cheekteeth on each side of both jaws, not fixed in any bone, but only in the gum – with pentadactylous paws webbed like the feet of a bird and formed for swimming, and with a spur behind in the hinder feet, emitting a poisonous liquid from a reservoir in the sole of the foot, supplied by a gland situated above the pelvis, and by the side of the spine. The animal is covered with a brown fur. It is found only in New Holland, and is sometimes called water mole.