174 BIRDS 0¥ AUSTRALIA. 



much resembles the clucking of the domestic fowl, ending 

 with a scream like that of the Peacock. 



" I observed that the birds continued to lay from the latter 

 part of August to March, when I left that })art of the country ; 

 and, according to the testimony of the natives, there is only 

 an interval of about four or five months, the dryest and hot- 

 test part of the year, between their seasons of incubation. 

 The composition of the mound appears to influence the co- 

 louring of a thin epidermis with which the eggs are covered, 

 and which readily chips off, showing the true shell to be 

 white ; those deposited in the black soil are always of a dark 

 reddish brown, while those from the sandy hillocks near the 

 beach are of a dirty yellowish white ; they differ a good deal 

 in size, but in form they all assimilate, both ends being equal ; 

 they are three inches and five lines long by two inches and 

 three lines broad." 



The following interesting account of the breeding-places of 

 this remarkable bird has been transmitted to me by Mr. John 

 Macgillivray as the result of his observations on Nogo or 

 Megapodius Island in Endeavour Straits. It will be seen that 

 its range is more extensive than I had assigned to it : — 



" The most southern locality known to me for this singular 

 bird is Haggerston Island (in lat. 12° 3' south), where I observed 

 several of its mounds of very large size, but did not see any 

 of the birds. During the survey of Endeavour Straits in 

 H.M.S. ' Bramble,' 1 was more fortunate, having succeeded 

 in procuring both male and female on the island marked 

 * Nogo ' upon the chart, where I resided for several days for 

 that sole purpose. On this small island, not more than half 

 a mile in length, rising at one extremity into a low rounded 

 hill densely covered with jungle (or what in New South Wales 

 would be called 'brush'), three mounds, one of them appa- 

 rently deserted before completion, were found. The two 

 others were examined by Mr. Jukes and myself. The most 

 recent, judghig from the smoothness of its sides and the want 



