160 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



thing like the same extent ; and yet the bird was perfectly 

 healthy. It possesses the power of running with extraordi- 

 nary rapidity ; it roosts at night on trees, and never flies if it 

 can avoid so doing. 



" The mounds they construct are from twelve to thirteen 

 yards in circumference at the base, and from two to three 

 feet in height ; the general form being that of a dome. The 

 sand and grass are sometimes scraped up for a distance of from 

 fifteen to sixteen feet from its outer edge. 



" The mound appears to be constructed as follows: — A nearly 

 circular hole, of about eighteen inches in diameter, is scratched 

 in the ground to the depth of seven or eight inches, and filled 

 with dead leaves, dead grass, and similar materials ; and a 

 large mass of the same substances is placed all round it upon 

 the ground. Over this first layer a large mound of sand, 

 mixed with dried grass, &c., is thrown, and finally the whole 

 assumes the form of a dome, as I have before stated. 



" When an egg is to be deposited, the top is laid open and 

 a hole scraped in its centre to within two or three inches of the 

 bottom of the layer of dead leaves. The egg is placed in the 

 sand just at the edge of the hole, in a vertical position, with 

 the smaller end downwards. The sand is then thrown in 

 again, and the mound left in its original form. The egg 

 which has been thus deposited is therefore completely sur- 

 rounded and enveloped in soft sand, having from four to six 

 inches of sand between the lower end of the egg and the layer 

 of dead leaves. When a second egg is laid it is deposited in 

 precisely the same plane as the first, but at the opposite side 

 of the hole before alluded to. When a third egg is laid it is 

 placed in the same plane as the others, but, as it were, at the 

 third corner of a square. When the fourth egg is laid, it is 

 still placed in the same plane, but in the fourth corner of the 

 square, or rather of the lozenge, the figure being of this 

 form : — o°o ; the next four eggs in succession are placed in the 

 interstices, but always in the same plane, so that at last there 



