152 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



respecting them, nothing of importance having since been 

 discovered. 



The most remarkable circumstance connected w^ith the 

 economy of this species is the fact of its eggs not being incu- 

 bated in the manner of other birds. At the commencement of 

 spring the Wattled Talegallus scratches together an immense 

 heap of decaying vegetable matter as a depository for the 

 eggs, and trusts to the heat engendered by the process of fer- 

 mentation for the development of the young. The heap em- 

 ployed for this purpose is collected by the birds diu'ing several 

 weeks previous to the period of laying ; it varies in size from 

 two to many cart-loads, and in most instances is of a pyra- 

 midal form. The construction of the mound is either the 

 work of one pair of birds or, as some suppose, the united 

 labours of several ; the same site appears to be resorted to for 

 several years in succession, the birds adding a fresh supply of 

 materials each succeeding season. 



The materials composing these mounds are accumulated 

 by the bird grasping a quantity in its foot and throwing it 

 backwards to one common centre, the surface of the ground 

 for a considerable distance being so completely scratched over 

 that scarcely a leaf or a blade of grass is left. The mound 

 being completed, and time allowed for a sufficient heat to be 

 engendered, the eggs are deposited in a circle at the distance of 

 nine or twelve inches from each other, and buried more than 

 an arm's depth, with the large end upwards ; they are covered 

 up as they are laid, and allowed to remain until hatched. I 

 have been credibly informed, both by natives and settlers 

 living near their haunts, that it is not an unusual event to 

 obtain half a bushel of eggs at one time from a single mound ; 

 and I have myself seen a native woman bring to the encamp- 

 ment in her net half as many as the spoils of a foraging ex- 

 cursion to the neighbouring scrub. Some of the natives state 

 that the females are constantly in the neighbourhood of the 

 mound about the time the young are likely to be hatched, and 



