7IO 



N£STS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



as a depository for the eggs, and trusts to the heat engendered by the 

 process of fermentation for the development of the young. The heap 

 employed for this pui'pose is collected by the bii'ds during several weeks 

 previous to the period of laying, it varies in size from two to many cart- 

 loads, and in most instances is of a pyramidal form. The construction 

 of the mound is either the work of one pair of birds or, as some suppose, 

 the united labours of several ; the same site seems to be resorted to for 

 several years in succession, the birds adding a fresh supply of materials 

 each succeeding season. 



" The materials composing these mounds are accumulated by the bird 

 gi'aspmg a quantity in its foot and tlu'owing it backwards to one common 

 centre, the smface of the gi'ound for a considerable distance being so 

 completely scratched over that scarcely a leaf or a blade of grass is left. 

 Tlie mound being completed, and time allowed for sufficient heat to be 

 engendered, the eggs ai'e deposited in a circle at a distance of nine or 

 twelve inches from each other, and buried more than an arm's depth 

 with the lai'ge end upwards ; they are covered up as they are laid, and 

 allowed to remain until hatched. I have been credibly mformed, both 

 by natives and by settlers living near their haunts, that it is not an 

 unusual event to obtain half-a^bushel of eggs at one time from a single 

 mound ; and I have myself seen a native woman bring to the encampment 

 in her net half as many as the spoils of a foraging excursion to the 

 neighboming scrub. Some of the natives state tliat the females are 

 constantly in the neighboiu'hood of the mound about the time the young 

 are likely to be hatched, and frequently uncover and cover them up again, 

 apparently for the purpose of assisting those that may have appeai'cd ; 

 while others have informed me that the eggs are merely deposited and 

 the young allowed to force their way unassisted. One point has been 

 clearly ascertained, namely, that the young, from the hour they are 

 hatchtd, are clothed with feathers, and have their wings sufficiently 

 developed to enable them to fly on to the branches of trees, should they 

 need to do so to escape from danger. They ai-e equally nimble on their 

 legs; in fact, as a moth emerges from a chiysalis, di-ies its wings and flies 

 away, so the youthful Talegallus, when it leaves the egg, is sufficiently 

 perfect to act independently and procure its own food. This we know 

 from a personal observation of the bird in a state of captivity, several 

 old birds having constructed mounds, in which their eggs have been 

 deposited and their yoimg developed, in the gardens of tlie Zoological 

 Society, at Regent's Park. I shall always look back witii pleasure 



to the fact of my being the fii-st to make known these singular habits. 

 Although, unfortunately, I was almost too late for the breeding season, 

 I nevertheless saw several of these hatching mounds, both in the interior 

 of New South Wales and at Iliawan'a. In every instance they were 

 placed in retired and shady glens, and on the slope of a hill, the part 

 above tlie mound being scratched clean, while all below remained 

 untouched, as if the birds had found it more easy to convey the materials 

 down than to throw them up." 



Other interesting information respecting the Talegallus has been 

 contributed by Dr. E. P. Ramsay, who, writing of the birds of Northern 

 Queensland, states: — "However plentiful this species may have been 



