THE TRUE MEGAPODES. 167 
sess the highest interest. Moderate-sized birds as they are, 
they gradually manage to accumulate tumuli that would not 
have done discredit to the final resting-place of some ancient 
British hero, and in these they bury their eggs and leave them 
to be hatched by the heat evolved, as I believe, by fermenta- 
tion in the interior of these mounds.” 
The late Mr. W. R. Davison, one of the finest field natura- 
lists that ever lived, says :—‘‘I have seena great many mounds 
of this bird. Usually they are placed close to the shore, but 
on Bompoka and on Katchall I saw two mounds some 
distance inland in the forest. . They were composed of dried 
leaves, sticks, &c., mixed with earth, and were very small com- 
pared with others near the sea-coast, not being above three 
feet high, and about twelve or fourteen feet in circumference ; 
those built near the coast are composed chiefly of sand mixed 
with rubbish, and vary very much in size, but average about 
five feet high and thirty feet in circumference ; but I met with 
one exceptionally large one on the Island of Trinkut, which 
must have been at least eight feet high and quite sixty feet in cir- 
cumference. It was apparently a very old one, for from near 
its centre grew a tree about six inches in diameter, whose 
roots penetrated the mound in all directions to within a foot of 
its summit, some of them being nearly as thick as a man’s 
wrist. I had this mound dug away almost to the level of the 
surrounding land, but only got three eggs from it, one quite 
fresh, and two in which the chicks were somewhat developed. 
“ Off this mound I shot a Megapode, which had evidently 
only just laid an egg. I dissected it, and from a careful 
examination it would seem that the eggs are laid at long inter- 
vals apart, for the largest egg in the ovary was only about the 
size of a large pea, and the next in size about as big as a small 
pea. ‘These mounds are also used by reptiles, for out of one 
I dug, besides the Megapode’s eggs, about a dozen eggs of 
some large lizard. 
‘I made careful enquiries among the natives about these 
