THE BRUSH TURKEY. 403 



to for several j'ears in succession, the birds adding a fresh supply of materials previously 

 to laying. 



" The mode in which the materials composing these mounds arc accumulated is 

 equally singidar ; tlie bird never iising its beak, but alwaj-s grasping a quantity in its 

 foot, throwing it backwards to one common centre, and thus clearing the surface of the 

 groimd for a considerable distance so completely, that scarcely a leaf or a blade of grass 

 is left. 



" The heap being accumidated, and time allowed for a suthcient heat to bo engendered, 

 the eggs are deposited, not side by side, as is ordinarily the case, but planted at the 

 distance of nine or twelve inches from each other, and buried at nearly an arm's depth, 

 perfectly upright, with the large end upwards. They are covered up as they are laid, 

 and allowed to remain until hatched. I have been credibly informed, both by natives 

 and settlers li\'ing near their haunts, that it is not unusual to obtain nearly a bushel of 

 eggs at one time from a single heap ; and as they are delicious eating, they are eagerly 

 sought after." 



Some of the natives assured Mr. Gould, that the females are constantly in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the heap, waiting for the time at which the hatching of the eggs takes 

 place ; and that they frequently imcover and cover again the eggs, as if for the purpose 

 of ascertaining their progress, or of assisting the young to liberate themselves from their 

 imprisonment. Others, however, denied this, and stated that the eggs were altogether 

 forsaken, the young being .left to liberate themselves. Unfortunately, Mr. Gould was 

 not in the districts inhabited by these birds during the breeding season ; but he inclines 

 to the latter statement, and thinks that, from the great size of the egg, there is room for 

 the young to become more fully developed than in ordinary cases, and that they are 

 hatclied capable of talcing care of themselves. In confirmation of this, he observes that, 

 in searching for eggs in one of the mounds, he discovered the remains of a young bird, 

 apparently jiist exuded from the shell. It was clothed, not with down, as is usual, but 

 with feathers — a proof, if indeed the bird died when just escaped from the shell, that it 

 was more advanced than is the young of the common fowl, or any kind of poultry, at the 

 same crisis. 



Mr. Goidd also thinks the opinion that the eggs, once deposited, are never disturbed 

 afterwards, to be corroborated by the fact that they are always found upright. But it 

 may here be remarked, that though the parent-birds may occasionally uncover the eggs, 

 it does not follow that they alter the position of them. Nor is the discovery of a young 

 bird feathered, which appeared as if newly hatched, a proof either that the parents 

 neglect the eggs or the young. These points yet remain to be determined. 



^Ir. Gould saw several of the nioimds formed by these birds, both in the interior of the 

 country and at Illawara. " In every instance, they were placed in the most retired and 

 shady glens, and on the slope of a hill." The ground above the nest was always 

 scratched clean, while that below the nest appeared to be untouched ; as if the birds had 

 found it more convenient to bring the materials for its construction down the hill, than to 

 throw them up. 



The eggs are perfectly white, of a long, oval figure, and three inches and three quarters 

 in length. 



The wattled talegaUa is about the size of a common turkey, three parts grown. The 

 adults have the whole of the upper surface of a blackish brown. The feathers of the 

 chest are edged with silvery gray. The skin of the head and neck is of a deep red, and 

 thinly sprinkled with short hair-like feathers ; the sides of the neck, at its lower part, 

 are ornamented with a bright yellow wattle, or fleshy excrescence, capable of being- 

 expanded or contracted at will, as in the common turkey. The female is rather less than 

 the male, and the wattles are not so much developed ; her coloui' is the same. 



2 b 2 



