178 Allen's naturalist's library. 



sixty in circumference at tlie base, the upper part being about 

 a tliird less, and was entirely composed of the richest descrip- 

 tion of light vegetable mould ; on the top were very recent 

 marks of the bird's feet. The native and myself immediately 

 set to work, and after an hour's extreme labour, rendered the 

 more fatiguing from the excessive heat, and the tormenting 

 attacks of myriads of mosquitoes and sand-flies, I succeeded in 

 obtaining an egg from a depth of about five feet ; it was in a 

 perpendicular position, with the earth surrounding and very 

 likely touching it on all sides, and without any other material 

 to impart warmth, which in fact did not appear necessary, 

 the mound being quite warm to the hands. The holes in this 

 mound commenced at the outer edge of the summit, and ran 

 obliquely towards the centre ; their direction, therefore, is not 

 uniform. Like the majority of the mounds I have seen, th's 

 was so enveloped in thickly foliaged trees as to preclude the 

 possibility of the sun's rays reaching any part of it. . . . 

 The mounds are doubtless the work of many years, and of 

 many birds in succession ; some of them are evidently very 

 ancient, trees being often seen growing from their sides ; in one 

 instance I found a tree growing from the middle of a mound 

 which was a foot in diameter. . . . The natives say that 

 only a single pair of birds are ever found at one mound at a 

 time, and such, judging from my own observation, I believe 

 to be the case ; they also affirm that the eggs are deposited at 

 night, at intervals of several days, and this I also believe to be 

 correct, as four eggs taken on the same day, and from the same 

 mound, contained young in different stages of development ; 

 and the fact that they are always placed perpendicularly is 

 established by the concurring testimony of all the different 

 tribes of natives I have questioned on the subject. . . . 

 It is at all times a very difficult bird to procure ; for although 

 the rustling noise produced by its stiff pinions when flying may 

 be frequently heard, the bird itself is seldom to be seen. Its 

 flight is heavy and unsustained in the extreme ; when first dis- 



