-l6 NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



ambush for Rifle Birds, Megapodes frequently passed close to us, mmiiug 

 over the ground through the scrub. 



The Megapode differs from the otlier two Australian mound-building 

 birds in that it raises immensely larger mounds ; the largest, according 

 to the dimensions furnished by Gilbert and Macgillivray, must have 

 contained, by tlie computations of a mathematical friend of mine, nearly 

 nine thousand cubic feet of earth. Into these great mounds the 

 Megapode appears to bmrow for several feet to deposit its egg — not hke 

 the Lipoa and Talegallus, which open the mounds up for that pui-pose. 

 Owing to the great interest attached to the Megapode and its mound- 

 raising procli\'ities, I make no apology for giving at length (from Gould) 

 Gilbert's original and most entertaining account of his observations in 

 the Port Darwin district, 1842 : " On my arrival at Port Essiugton, my 

 attention was attracted to numerous immense mounds of earth, which 

 were pointed out to me by some of the residents as the tumuli of the 

 aborigines ; on tlie other hand I was assui-ed by the natives that they 

 were formed by the Megapode for tlie purpose of incubating its eggs. 

 Their statement appeared so extraordinary and so much at variance 

 with the genera] habits of bii'ds, that no one believed them or took 

 sufficient interest in the matter to examine the mounds, and thus to 

 verify or refute their accounts. Another circimistance which induced a 

 doubt of their veracity was the great size of the egg brought in by the 

 natives as that of the bird. Aware that the eggs of the Lipoa were 

 hatched in a similar manner, my attention was immediately arrested by 

 these accounts, and I at once detennined to ascertain all I possibly could 

 respecting so singular a feature in the bird's economy ; and having 

 procured the assistance of a very intelhgent native, who undertook to 

 guide me to the different places resorted to by the bird, I proceeded on 

 the 16th November to Knocker's Bay, a pai-t of Port Essington com- 

 paratively but little known, and wJiere, I had been informed, a number 

 of these birds was always to be seen. I landed beside a thicket, and 

 had not proceeded far from the shore ere I came to a mound of sand and 

 shells, with a slight mixture of black soil, the base resting on a sandy 

 beach, only a few feet above liigh-water mark. It was enveloped in 

 the lai'ge yellow-blossomed Hihisrus, was of a conical form, twenty feet 

 in circumference at the base, and about five feet high. On pointing 

 it out to the native and asking him what it was, he replied, ' Ooorcgoorg a 

 Rambal ' (Megapode's house or nest). I then scrambled up the sides of 

 it, and to my extreme deUght foimd a yoimg bird in a hole about two 

 feet deep. It was lying on a few dry withered leaves, and appeared to 

 be only a few days old. So far I was satisfied that these moimds had 

 some connection with the bird's mode of incubation ; but I was still 

 sceptical as to the probability of these young birds ascending from so 

 great a depth, as the natives represented, and my suspicions were con- 

 firmed by my being unable to induce the native, in this instance, to 

 search for the eggs, his excuse being that ' he knew it would be useless, 

 as he saw no traces of the old birds having recently been there !' I took 

 the utmost care of the young bird, intending to rear it if possible. I 

 tliereforo obtained a moderately-sized box, and placed in it a large portion 

 of sand. As it fed rather freely on bi-uised Indian corn, 1 was in full 



