1G THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



varies considerably, and they seem to keep on adding to them 

 during the whole breeding season. Like other mound-building 

 birds, the young are quite able to take care of themselves as soon 

 as hatched. Those taken by the blacks from the eggs just before 

 hatching are sometimes brought in and reared. The Scrub Hen, 

 Megapodius tumulus, is only found in the low-lying country, and 

 makes very much larger mounds than the Talegalla. The same 

 mound is used year after year, and is composed of earth, sticks, 

 leaves, &c. The eggs are laid from 18 inches to 3 feet deep, and 

 are of a pink colour, very similar in appearance and size to the 

 Malice Hen, Leipoa ocellata. I saw many nests, the largest being 

 10 feet high by 25 feet in diameter at the base ; it contained an 

 immense amount of material, having evidently been used for many 

 years. We secured a good many eggs at different times. The 

 temperature of the mound where the eggs were placed was 95°. 

 These mounds, like those of the Talegalla, are often resorted to 

 by reptiles and insects to lay their eggs in. These birds have 

 great strength to enable them to scratch the material up of which 

 their nest is composed. The blacks say the young birds find 

 their way out of the nest, but I certainly should judge that they 

 were liberated by the parent bird, as is the case witli the Mallee 

 Hen. The fact of the young birds being often taken out of the 

 egg would help to support this view, as otherwise they would be 

 found making their way out of the mound, through the dirt, which 

 I could never hear of their ever having been found doing. The 

 same statement was made about the Mallee Hen, but it has been 

 proved that the young cannot make their way out of the mound, 

 and, if not liberated, die in the egg. The young birds generally 

 stay with the old ones for a short time, and when all are hatched 

 leave the vicinity of the nest ; these birds are often found on the 

 islands along the northern coast, and we found them breeding on 

 the North Barnard Islands in 1891. Like other birds of the same 

 kind they generally roost on the top branches of the trees, flying 

 from one branch to another till they get to the desired height. 

 Occasionally the beautiful White-bellied Sea Eagle, Haliaetus 

 leucogaster, was seen soaring high overhead, but they were not 

 numerous. I heard of the locality of two of their nests on very 

 high dead trees, but it was too late to visit them, as they generally 

 lay in August. The White-breasted Sea Eagles, Haliaetus leuco- 

 stnrnus, were much more numerous, but they likewise breed early 

 in the season, laying three eggs. On one occasion on the 

 Bloomfield River, I saw one plunge down from a considerable 

 height and carry off a fish in its talons to a neighbouring dead 

 tree. It is a curious fact that one of their nests is almost invariably 

 found in the branches of the large trees in which the Shining 

 Calornis, Calornis metattica, build their numerous clusters of 

 nests. On one occasion I saw a specimen of the White Goshawk, 



