The first Ornithorhynchus

Confused early thinkers.

They said, 'Oh good lord,

It's an obvious fraud!

Someone has stuck

The front end of a duck

(With the skill of a weaver)

To part of a beaver.

It's no less fake

Than the mermaids they make

From a fish and an ape-

A rediculous jape!

We now know it's real

Though i can't help but feel

That from tail tip to muzzle,

It is still a puzzle.