158 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



are deposited in a very different manner from those of tlie 

 Megapodius ; instead of each being placed in a separate ex- 

 cavation in different parts of the mound, they are laid directly 

 in the centre, all at the same depth, separated only by about 

 three inches of earth, and so placed as to form a circle. I 

 regret we were so early; had we been a week later, the 

 probability is I should have found the circle of eggs com- 

 plete. Is it not singular that all the eggs were equally 

 fresh, as if their development was arrested until the full 

 number was deposited, so that the young might all appear 

 about the same time? No one considering the immense 

 size of the egg can for a moment suppose the bird capable of 

 laying more than one without at least the intermission of a day, 

 and perhaps even more. Like those of the Megapodius, they 

 are covered with an epidermis-like coating, and are certainly as 

 large, being three inches and three quarters in length by two 

 and a half in breadth ; they vary in colour from a very light 

 brown to a light salmon. Dm'ing the whole day we did not 

 succeed in obtaining sight of the bird, although we saw nume- 

 rous tracks of its feet, and many places where it had been 

 scratching ; we also saw its tracks on the sand when crossing 

 the dried beds of the swamps at least two miles from the 

 breeding-thicket, which proves that the bird, in procuring its 

 food, does not confine itself to the brushes around its nest, but 

 merely resorts to them for the purpose of incubating. The 

 native informed us that the only chance of procuring the bird 

 was by stationing ourselves in sight of the mound at a little 

 distance, and remaining quiet and immovable till it made its 

 appearance at sundown ; this I attempted, and, with the 

 native, encamped within twenty yards of the mound about an 

 hour before sunset, taking the precaution to conceal ourselves 

 well with bushes from the quick eye of the bird, but leaving 

 just a sufficient opening to get a fair sight with my gun ; in a 

 half-sitting, half-crouching position, I thus remained in breath- 

 less anxiety for the approach of the bird I had so long wished to 



