FAMILY CARES — BUILDING THE HOME. 147 



White sand reflects heat. In the highlands 

 of the island there are hot springs dispersed 

 throughout the black sand, and it was dis- 

 covered by the Sarasins, that the birds always 

 choose the neighbourhood of a spring in which 

 to lay their eggs. They write, "With regard 

 to the breeding of the moleos, therefore, we 

 are able to maintain our opinion that the 

 bird indeed lays its eggs in the sand on the 

 hot sea-shore, where the heat of the sun then 

 proves powerful enough to hatch them ; but 

 that in the mountains, and especially in the 

 shady forests of the interior, for the warmth of 

 the sun must be substituted some other power, 

 and for this purpose the moleo chooses the 

 vicinity of warm water springs, which it searches 

 out, and makes its breeding-pits in the ground 

 warmed by hot springs. Accordingly, where 

 moleos are encountered in the interior of Celebes, 

 these warm springs will be found not far off." 



The other megapodes provide for their eggs in 

 a rather different fashion, forming huge mounds 

 of some five or six yards high, and thirty feet in 

 circumference. These mounds are made up of 

 earth, leaves, and rotten wood. In a short time 

 the heap becomes a most perfect hot-bed, and a 

 most admirable incubator. Here the e^gs are 

 laid, and the parent from that time ceases to take 

 any further care of them. 



Considering the great distances the birds come 

 to deposit the eggs . . . "often ten or fifteen 

 miles," writes Mr Alfred Eussel Wallace, "it 

 seems extraordinary that they should take no 

 further care of them. It is, however, quite 



