The italics below are mine. Note that the passage this was written in 1825, long before people were supposed to be talking about mammals laying eggs. In fact, Sir Joseph Banks was discussing the idea in 1804, but they never mentioned that in Zoology III!
"But this is New Holland, where it is summer with us when it is winter in Europe, and vice versa; where the barometer rises before bad weather, and falls before good; where the north is the hot wind, and the south the cold … where the swans are black and the eagles white; where the kangaroo, an animal between the squirrel and the deer, has five claws on its forepaws, and three talons on its hind-legs, like a bird, yet hops on its tail; where the mole (ornithorhynchus paradoxus) lays eggs, and has a duck's bill; where there is a bird (meliphaga) with a broom in its mouth instead of a tongue..."
The cruelly-named Barron Field (what were his parents thinking?) is just one of the cases looked at here: I also deal with Dampier not eating guano; the fat-bellied fish; the Liverpool Monster; bunyips; a hero of the croquet lawn who married an heiress; how Charles Darwin got it badly wrong; how Ferdinand Bauer was kicked off the map; three Germans who stood up for Australian science, and artists having hissy fits.
This came out in 2012, and a new edition is now out, as of 7 November 2021. Here is what I said about the first edition (plus some nice reviews), and here's a bit of that:
It is the story for some of the curious minds who came to Australia, or in a few cases were born here, people who cared about the natural history of the place. Some were artists, some scientists, some collectors, some explorers, and some just enjoyed natural history.
Oh yes, just by the way, I know exactly what Barron Field's parents were thinking, when they dropped that ill-omened name on him, but you will have to read the book to find out.
An ebook in full colour for Kindle, $8
A print-on-demand full-colour paperback, $50, necessarily expensive.
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