Mound-building Birds of Australia. 17 



many miles from the mainland. It is possible they may 

 have been blown out during a cyclone. The want of water 

 on many of these islands does not seem to make any dif- 

 ference to them. 



The male and female are very similar in appearance, being 

 of a dark brown colour, the male being the darker of the 

 two. They are difficult to detect in the scrub, especially 

 when they remain quiet, which they often do on being first 

 disturbed. Their habits are shy and solitary, and they are 

 rarely seen, as, on being alarmed, they can run very quickly, 

 keeping in the thickest cover, or else they fly into a low 

 branch of a tree, and on perceiving any movement on the 

 part of the cause of their disturbance they fly heavily away. 

 They use their wings much more readily than the Brush- 

 Turkey, and fly more freely through the scrub. 



They are generally very silent during the day, but when 

 they are going to roost near the tops of the high trees 

 they often utter a loud double call, and frequently repeat 

 it all night at intervals of half an hour or so. When 

 camped in the scrub I have often heard them. Their food 

 consists of snails, insects, berries, &c. 



The Scrub-hens generally make their mounds in thick 

 scrub, and apparently without any particular choice of 

 locality; they are often placed just above high-water mark 

 on the coast, and of course are then mostly composed of 

 sand mixed with stones, roots, sticks, and leaves, while 

 further inland earth takes the place of sand. But, unlike 

 the Mallee-Fowl or Brush-Turkey, they form their mounds 

 mostly of soil, with just sufficient vegetation mixed with it 

 to cause it to heat. Again, they do not scrape out their 

 mounds every season, but add to them, so that, as they are 

 largely composed of soil, in the course of a few years they 

 become of considerable size, and shrubs and trees often grow 

 on them, and in course of time fill them with a network of 

 roots. By that time, however, the birds generally desert 

 them, not so much on account of the roots, but because the 

 vegetation has become decomposed and no longer generates 

 sufficient heat. When a pair of birds start a nesting-mound 



SER. VIT. VOL. v. C 



