NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. ggg 



found evidences of the biid between Cue and Sepaiation Well, in the 

 Great Noxth-west Desert. Mr. Tom Carter obtained eggs from the 

 natives, gathered between Wooramel and the Mmxhison River. The 

 furthest point south touched by the Lipoa is, or rather was (for I fear 

 they have been driven out of the locaUty or destroyed by foxes), the 

 Brisbane Ranges between Bacchus Marsh and the You Yangs, Victoria. 

 At all events, the birds were there duiiug the season 1887, 

 Mr. A. Cameron, a station employe, having seen a nest, apparently 

 just ready for egg's. He also heard of a person who found another 

 nest containing eggs. 



What a profovmd pity these wonderi'ul and most interesting birds 

 could not be properly preserved, because they are imdoubtedly fast 

 disappearing! I beUeve I have the record of the last eggs taken in 

 the unmediate neighbom-hood of Bendigo. That was the season of 

 1879. I saw eggs that were obtained from a mound in the Bagshot 

 forest. FoiTQerly the bii-ds were plentiful further north in the Whip- 

 stick scrub. During the Wliipstick iiish (1861) birds were exposed 

 for sale in the poulterers' shops in Bendigo. 



The aboi-igines in the Benchgo district, which are now, hke the 

 bu-d, defunct, called the creatnre " Low-an-ee." Mr. F. R. Godfrey 

 recollects hearing the natives of the Lower Loddon call the bird 

 " Louan. " The great shire of Lowan, in the Wimmera district, derives 

 its title from the native name of the bird. In Western Australia the 

 Lipoa was first called by the trivial name " Native Pheasant," but is now 

 usually known by its native name " Ngow," or " Nau." Gould states 

 other Western tribes called the bii'd " Ngow-oo," and that this name is 

 given on account of the tuft on its head, " Ngoweer " signifying a tuft of 

 feathers. 



Decidedly the most peculiar feature in the economy of the Lipoa, 

 or Mallee Hen, is that it does not incvibate its eggs in the usual 

 manner, but deposits them in a lai'ge mound of sand, where they are 

 liatched by the action of the sim's rays, together with the heat 

 engendered by the decomposing vegetation placed undemeath the sand 

 and eggs. In constructing a new nest or mound, a shght hollow, 

 usually a water track or shallow gully, is selected, in almost 

 impenetrable scrub. The spot is further hollowed or scooped out, 

 and filled with dead leaves and other vegetable matter. Then all is 

 completely enveloped with sand, which is scraped up for several yards 

 aroimd. 



About the end of April or the beginning of May both birds (male 



and female) commence to clear out theu' old mound or construct a 



new one, which is then left open till June or July (the late Mr. K. H. 



Bennett states October),* when leaves, &c., are gathered and placed 



* I received a communication from Mr. K. H. Bennett, in which he writes: — 

 " The period of the nidification of the Mallee Hen appears to differ somewhat in 

 Victoria, for I have never known them here (Mossgeil, N.S.W.) to commence 

 constructing their nests earlier than the middle of September (more frequently in 

 October), whilst I have taken fresh eggs on several occasions from nests as late as 

 the middle of March. I think the difference in time may be accounted for by the 

 fact that the winters here are as a rule dry, the rain coming usually during the 

 months of September and October, but it mainly depends on the season. During 

 years of drought the birds do not nest at all, instinct apparently teaching them that 

 without rain the attempt would be a failure." 



