NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 147 



brought in some of tlie large-sized eggs in confirmation 

 of their statement, they were treated as lawyers some- 

 times are when they try to make their case too good, and 

 the doubt previously entertained was strengthened. But 

 Mr. Gilbert happened to know something of the habits 

 of Leijwa, so he took to himself a knowing native, and 

 about the middle of November proceeded to Knocker's 

 Bay, a portion of Port Essington harbour very little 

 known, but where he had been told a considerable 

 number of these birds might be seen. He landed close 

 to a thicket, and had proceeded but a short distance 

 from the shore when he beheld a mound of sand and 

 shells, with a slight mixture of black soil, whose base 

 rested on the sandy beach, a few feet above high-water 

 mark. The large yellow-blossomed Hibiscus enveloped 

 this conical tumulus, which was some five feet high, and 

 twenty feet in circumference at its base. He turned to 

 his native, and asked what it was. 



' Oregoorga rambal.' (Jungle-fowrs house or nest.) 

 Up scrambled Mr. Gilbert, and sure enough found a 

 young bird in a hole about two feet deep, apparently but 

 a few days old, and lying on a few dry leaves. The 

 native protested to Mr. Gilbert that it would be of no use 

 to hunt for eggs, as there were no traces of the old birds 

 having been lately there, so our collector secured the 

 nestling, placed it in a good-sized box with a sufficiency 

 of sand, and fed it with bruised Indian corn, which it 

 took rather freely; but it was wild and intractable, and 

 on the third day it contrived to escape from its prison. 

 But while it remained in the box it was incessantly em- 

 ployed in scratching up the sand into heaps, and although 

 it was not larger than a small quail, the vigour and 

 rapidity with which it threw the sand from one end of 

 the place of its confinement to the other was quite sur- 

 prising. Poor Mr. Gilbert got but little sleep while it 

 was in his custody, for it was so restless at night that it 



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