120 
were occasionally to be procured. I offered a dollar each for all they 
would bring me; and first one was brought, afterwards five, but I 
could not succeed in hatching either of these under fowls. The first, 
after having been set upon for a month, was picked to pieces by its 
foster-parent, and the chick had apparently but just begun to form. 
The five eggs were addled. Having learned that the birds abounded 
on a small island, about a hundred miles along the coast, I bired a 
boat and five men, and sent them, about fourteen days since, with 
snares, &c., to endeavour to catch some of the old birds and to seek 
for the nests, this being the laying season, and to gather plants of 
Phalcinopsis, which grows on the same island (Pulo Tigu and Pulo 
Guya). They returned yesterday, bringing with them 102 eggs and 
only two birds, both of which had their legs injured by the snares. 
The sight of the eggs and birds have pertectly astonished me, the 
body of the former being no larger than that of a bantam, while the egg 
is as long, though not so broad, as that of a Chinese goose. The men 
say that on the different islands they visited they found a good many 
nests, which are placed at a little distance from the sea-shore, in the 
jungle of small islands, the spot being invariably marked by a large 
collection of sticks and branches. The eggs are found about three 
feet deep in the sand, and the men assure me that the bird has no 
communication with them except by rasping away the sand. ‘The 
man I employed has lived all his life on small islands, hunting for 
tortoise-shell, and well knows the habits of the bird; he says the eggs 
are hatched entirely by the sun’s heat, or rather the heat in the sand. 
One of the birds he brought died this morning, and I shall put its 
skin together with some of the eggs in a box, that you may send 
them to Earl Derby. I do not like to take the liberty of writing to 
his lordship myself, but if I can succeed in getting a lot of young 
birds, I shall not fail to send them to him by the very first opportu- 
nity. I have placed some of the eggs under fowls, and some in sand 
out of doors; some also in sand in a warm house, where I can regu- 
late the temperature; and I have hopes of rearing, or at least of 
hatching, some of the chicks, if the eggs are still good: but I think 
that by sending the men again in three months’ time with snares I 
might catch a lot of the young ones hatched naturally, and be able 
to rear them. The bird is said not to be found on the mainland: 
the eggs are reported excellent eating. 
* Aug. 12. Of the eggs I wrote to you so much about last mail, . 
one only has hatched: the chick came up full-fledged from under 
three feet of sand, and immediately ran about with the most surprising 
activity. It eats rice, ants’ eggs, &c. with the greatest avidity, and 
as it is now three weeks old, I have every hope of preserving it. More 
of the eggs appear to have chickens in them, and I hope will hatch. 
The bird, as I have ascertained, is an undescribed species of Mega- 
podius.” 
