194 ALLEN S NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



day to lay, but never succeeded in ascertaining which of the 

 parent birds opens the nest. The aborigines inform me that 

 the male bird always performs this office ; and I usually found 

 my black boys very correct in their statements of this kind. 

 After robbing a nest, it is necessary to replace the different 

 layers as they were found ; for if the lowest is too much mixed 

 up with the others, or the top tumbled into the excavations 

 made in the bottom one, the birds will invariably forsake the 

 mound ; so that I found it always necessary to carefully re- 

 place the different layers as I found them. It is not so with 

 the Megapodius duper7'eyi^ which species does not seem to care 

 how much the mound is tumbled about, so that there is suffi- 

 cient debris left to burrow in. . . . The greatest number 

 of eggs taken from one mound at one time was thirty-six. 

 This was a very old mound, and resorted to by several indi- 

 viduals." 



Mr. Gould observes : — "When disturbed, the Wattled Tale- 

 gallus readily eludes pursuit by the facility with which it runs 

 through the tangled brush. If hard pressed, or when rushed upon 

 by its great enemy the native dog, it springs upon the lowermost 

 bough of some neighbouring tree, and by a succession of leaps 

 from branch to branch ascends to the top, and either perches 

 there or flies off to another part of the brush. It is also in the 

 habit of resorting to the branches of trees as a shelter from the 

 mid-day sun — a peculiarity that greatly tends to their destruc- 

 tion ; for, like the Ruffed Grouse of America, when assembled 

 in small companies they will allow a succession of shots to be 

 fired until they are all brought down. . . . 



"While stalking about the woods the Talegallus frequently 

 utters a rather loud clucking noise ; but whether this sound is 

 uttered by the female only I could not ascertain ; still I think 

 such is the case, and that the spiteful male, who appears to de- 

 light in expanding his richly-coloured fleshy wattles and un- 

 mercifully thrashing his helpmate, is generally mute. 



" In various parts of the brush I observed depressions in 



