THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 245 



Reaumur proposed to leave the incubation of our hens' 

 eggs to the heat of dung, but they were poisoned by its 

 mephitic vapors. The Megapodius, more judicious than the 

 celebrated academician, employs the fermentation of grass 

 and leaves, which is not attended by the same inconvenience. 



Everything in the history of this animal is extraordinary. 

 Instead of being born naked, or covered with down, and of 

 issuing from the egg incapable of procuring its subsistence, 

 the young Megapodius when it breaks its shell is already 

 provided with feathers fitted for flight. It is scarcely free 

 ere it aspires to seek the light and air, throws off the leaves 

 which surround and stifle it, mounts on the crest of its 

 tumulus, dries its yet moist wings in the sun, and tests 

 them by a few flaps. Lastly, quickly becoming confident 

 in its strength and fortune, and having cast a disturbed and 

 inquisitive look upon the surrounding country, the feeble 

 bird takes its flight into the atmosphere and quits its cradle 

 forever ; it knows how to nourish itself as soon as it is 

 born! 



Another Australian bird possesses the same instinctive 

 foresight as that of which we have been speaking ; but, in- 

 stead of building mounds, it is a sturdy gleaner. The 

 Talcgalla Lathami, for so it is called, is of the size and has 

 the look of a fowl, and builds its nest with grass which it 

 gleans in the fields, and of which it gathers an enormous 

 heap, comparable, indeed, to the cocks which our hay- 

 makers form in the meadows. But it is not with its beak, 

 it is with its claws, that it works. By means of one of them 

 it collects a little bottle of hay, which it grasps in its toes ; 

 this it carries to its nest, hopping along upon the other foot. 



