THE TRUE MEGAPODES. 1 67 



sess the highest interest. Moderate-sized birds as they are, 

 they gradually manage to accumulate tumuli that would not 

 have done discredit to the final resting-place of some ancient 

 British hero, and in these they bury their eggs and leave them 

 to be hatched by the heat evolved, as I beheve, by fermenta- 

 tion in the interior of these mounds." 



The late Mr. W. R. Davison, one of the finest field natura- 

 lists that ever lived, says : — " I have seen a great many mounds 

 of this bird. Usually they are placed close to the shore, but 

 on Bompoka and on Katchall I saw two mounds some 

 distance inland in the forest. They were composed of dried 

 leaves, sticks, &c., mixed with earth, and were very small com- 

 pared with others near the sea-coast, not being above three 

 feet high, and about twelve or fourteen feet in circumference ; 

 those built near the coast are composed chiefly of sand mixed 

 with rubbish, and vary very much in size, but average about 

 five feet high and thirty feet in circumference ; but I met with 

 one exceptionally large one on the Island of Trinkut, which 

 must have been at least eight feet high and quite sixty feet in cir- 

 cumference. It was apparently a very old one, for from near 

 its centre grew a tree about six inches in diameter, whose 

 roots penetrated the mound in all directions to within a foot of 

 its summit, some of them being nearly as thick as a man's 

 wrist. I had this mound dug away almost to the level of the 

 surrounding land, but only got three eggs from it, one quite 

 fresh, and two in which the chicks were somewhat developed. 



" Off this mound I shot a Megapode, which had evidently 

 only just laid an egg. I dissected it, and from a careful 

 examination it would seem that the eggs are laid at long inter- 

 vals apart, for the largest egg in the ovary was only about the 

 size of a large pea, and the next in size about as big as a small 

 pea. These mounds are also used by reptiles, for out of one 

 I dug, besides the Megapode's eggs, about a dozen eggs of 

 some large lizard. 



" I made careful enquiries among the natives about these 



