224 THE USEFUL BIRDS 



MALLEE FOWL 



(LowAN, Mallee Pheasant), 



Lipoa oeellata, Girt. 



Li-po-a os-el-d'td. 

 Lipein, to leave ; oon, egg ; oeellata, little eyes. 

 Leipoa ocellata, Gould, " Birds of Australia," fol., vol. v., pi. 78. 

 Geographical Distribution. — Areas 0, 7, 9. 



Key to the Species. — General appearance black and grey, under 

 surface partly sealed ; top of head covered with feathers, forming 

 a short, thick crest ; nostrils elongated and oval ; tail long, 

 rounded, with 16 feathers; the long upper tail coverts reach to 

 the end of the tail ; a double row of large hexagonal plates down 

 the front of the rather short tarsus. 



We have in Australia four species of mound-building birds, 

 one of which i.^. associated with the dry portion of the 

 Commonwealth. Although to a large extent insectivorous, 

 they are not strictly so. 



Judged by the country this species occupies, and its manner 

 of living, it is one of the unique birds of the world, and 

 belongs to a genus that has helped to make Australia zoo- 

 logically famous. Like certain of the Keptilia, it arranges for 

 artificial heat to incubate the eggs in a mound of sand and 

 decomposing leaves. Such a hillock I measured, and found it 

 to have a circumference of 48 feet. 



A good general history of the bird has been given in The 

 Ihis, 1899, by Mr. W. H. D. Le Souef, C.M.Z.S. The author 

 well remarks : — 



"The bird has an extensive range in the southern half 

 of Australia, being found in the north-western portion of 

 Victoria, south-western portion of New South Wales, 

 soiithern South Australia, and Western Australia. It is, 



