ig8 Stray Feathers. [,sf''"" 



AiJiil 



rough diagram of a mound I opened on the 9th of this month 

 (December), which contained six eggs, one freshly laid. The 

 size of the egg chamber was 20 inches wide and 18 inches in 



depth. The eggs marked from 1 to 4 are what you would term 

 the top tier ; from number i to 2 there were 7 inches of sand 

 dividing them ; from 2 to 3 there were 25^ inches between 

 them ; from 3 to 4 there were 5 inches of sand between them ; 

 from 4 to 5 there were 8 inches of sand ; and number 5 egg was 

 on a plane about 4 inches below that of number 4 egg. From 

 5 to 6, 7 inches of sand intervened, and number 6 egg was about 

 3 inches below number 5 &gg. The eggs marked from i to 4 

 did not vary in depth from each other more than 2 to 3 inches. 



1 took six eggs out of this mound a few weeks previously.* At 

 the start of the season for laying, the Mallee-Fowl is most 

 regular,-f- but from the middle of the season to the end the 

 period between the laying of one egg and another varies con- 

 siderably." Supplementing Mr. M'Lennan's valuable notes, I 

 venture to add a recent personal one. On the 2nd December 

 last I visited an egg-mound over the South Australian border. 

 It was situated in Mai lee scrub {Eucalyptus incrasscxta and E. 

 oleosa), with a ground scrub of Melaleuca tmciiiata. The mound 

 was composed of dark greyish sand, was about 45 feet in 

 circumference, and open on the top like a miniature extinct 

 volcano. The removal of about 2 feet of sand revealed the 

 apices of three beautiful pinkish eggs within a kind of egg-chamber 

 14 inches across. The eggs were on the same plane, and formed 

 a rough triangle, i and 2 being separated by 5^ inches of sand, 



2 and 3 by 5 inches, and 3 and i by 4^ inches. Immediately 

 underneath these was the formation of a bottom tier containing 

 one egg. For more complete information I regretted there 

 were not more eggs in the mound, which probably had been 

 visited by other persons earlier in the season. I should mention 

 that it was shortly before noon when we visited the egg-mound, 

 which, if it were heaped in its usual pyramidal form, would be 



* This may account for the irregularity. — Eds. 

 t Usually one egg every third or fourth day. — A.J.C. 



