146 LEAVES FROM THE 



heap of sand, dead grass and boughs, three feet in height, 

 nine in diameter, and sometimes larger. 



In size this beautiful bird is less than the brush turkey. 

 It keeps much on the ground, seldom taking to a tree if 

 not closely pursued. When hard pressed it will often 

 run its head into a bush, and be there taken. The food, 

 like that of talegalla, consists principally of seeds and 

 berries, and it utters a mournful note, very like that of a 

 pigeon, but more inward in sound. 



But the most remarkable of this extraordinary group 

 is the Ooeregoorga of the aborigines of the Coburg Pen- 

 insula, known to the colonists of Port Essington as the 

 jungle-fowl.^ 



The head and crest of this great-footed bird are deep 

 cinnamon brown, the hue of the neck and all the under 

 surface is dark grey. The back and wings are cinnamon 

 brown, and the upper and under tail-coverts are dark 

 chesnut brown. The general colour of the irides is dark 

 brown, but in some individuals light reddish brown. 

 The reddish-brown bill is bordered with yellow edges. 

 The legs and feet bright orange, and the size about that 

 of the common fowl. 



When Mr. Gilbert, who assisted Mr. Gould in collect- 

 ing the materials for his grand work on the Australian 

 birds, arrived at Port Essington, numerous great mounds 

 of earth were pointed out to him by some of the residents 

 — who probably belonged to the Society of Antiquaries — 

 as being the tumuli of the aborigines. The natives told 

 him not to listen to these wise men, and assured him, 

 that so far from being the burying-places of the human 

 biped, they were the nests in which the eggs of the 

 ooeregoorga were hatched. No one in the settlement 

 believed a story that contradicted all the usual ex- 

 periences of the incubation of birds, and when the natives 



Megapodius tumulus. 



