RASORES. 173 



the young effect their escape ; but on this point they do not 

 agree ; some asserting that they find their way unaided ; 

 others, on the contrary, affirmed that the old birds, knowing 

 when the young are ready to emerge from their confinement, 

 scratch down and release them. 



" The natives say that only a single pair of birds are ever 

 found at one mound at a time, and such, judging from my 

 own observation, I believe to be the case ; they also affirm 

 that the eggs are deposited at night, at intervals of several 

 days, and this I also believe to be correct, as four tggs taken 

 on the same day, and from the same mound, contained young 

 in different stages of development ; and the fact that they are 

 always placed perpendicularly is established by the concurring 

 testimony of all the different tribes of natives I have questioned 

 on the subject. 



" The Megapode is almost exclusively confined to the 

 dense thickets immediately adjacent to the sea-beach ; it 

 appears never to go far inland, except along the banks of 

 creeks. It is always met with in pairs or quite solitary, and 

 feeds on the ground, its food consisting of roots, which its 

 powerful claws enable it to scratch up with the utmost facility, 

 and also of seeds, berries, and insects, particularly the larger 

 species of coleoptera. 



" It is at all times a very difficult bird to procure ; for 

 although the rustling noise produced by its stiff pinions when 

 flying may be frequently heard, the bird itself is seldom to be 

 seen. Its flight is heavy and unsustained in the extreme ; 

 when first disturbed it invariably flies to a tree, and on 

 alighting stretches out its head and neck in a straight line 

 with its body, remaining in this position as stationary and 

 motionless as the branch upon which it is perched ; if, how- 

 ever, it becomes fairly alarmed, it takes a horizontal but 

 laborious flight for about a hundred yards, with its legs hang- 

 ing down as if broken. I did not myself detect any note or 

 cry ; but, from the natives' description aiul imitation of it, it 



