End of the Affair

Penelope Platypus was one of those saucy females who like to keep a male on a string. Cecil Platypus is one of those males. They lived mid the pleasures of their own platypusary in New York's Bronx Zoo, where each had its own little swimming pool and private burrows. And though there was a wooden barrier built between them, Cecil knew how to get around--an achievement fostered by zoo authorities--in season. For outside Tasmania and Australia, these two furry mammals were the only platypuses in captivity, and everybody hoped that one day Cecil and Penelope would produce platykittens.

Cecil tried. Back in 1953 Penelope fooled everybody with a false pregnancy. But the zoo never gave up hope. Neither did Cecil. Last month platypus observers noted that something was up in the platypusary. True enough, Cecil and Penelope never varied in their basic routine: they slept by day (with an hour's break for visitors), came out at night for dinner (25 to 35 live crayfish, 200 to 300 worms, one frog, several scrambled eggs, add mud and stir). But beyond that, instead of just waddling about his own business, Cecil began to court Penelope. He grabbed her flat tail in his duckbilled, toothless mouth, and held on for dear life while Penelope dragged him around the pool in slow circles. At times Cecil would let go and roll over and over in the water. But Penelope, who after all weighs two pounds to Cecil's four, did not see what there was to be so ecstatic about. She didn't want Cecil around any more. Her tail hurt.

A fortnight ago Cecil crawled through the barrier and snuggled into Penelope's burrow. Hope soared. But one day when the platypus keeper went to find Penelope, she was gone. She had apparently slithered under her wire-mesh roof. At week's end an unhappy posse at the Bronx Zoo was still scouting the 250-acre compound. They hoped that Penelope had not ended up in the Bronx River or the Jersey flats. Cecil just scratched his stomach and fed his ego. Where once there were two, he was now the only platypus in captivity--outside Tasmania and Australia.

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