y 
i738 LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 
sixty in circumference at the base, the upper part being about 
a third less, and was entirely composed of the richest descrip- 
tion of light vegetable mould ; on the top were very recent 
marks of the bird’s feet. ‘The native and myself immediately 
set to work, and after an hour's extreme labour, rendered the 
more fatiguing from the excessive heat, and the tormenting 
attacks of myriads of mosquitoes and sand-flies, I succeeded in 
obtaining an egg from a depth of about five feet ; it was ina 
perpendicular position, with the earth surrounding and very 
likely touching it on all sides, and without any other material 
to impart warmth, which in fact did not appear necessary, 
the mound being quite warm to the hands. ‘The holes in this 
mound commenced at the outer edge of the summit, and ran 
obliquely towards the centre ; their direction, therefore, is not 
uniform. Like the majority of the mounds I have seen, this 
was so enveloped in thickly foliaged trees as to preclude the 
possibility of the sun’s rays reaching any part of it. 
The mounds are doubtless the work of many years, and of 
many birds in succession ; some of them are evidently very 
ancient, trees being often seen growing from their sides ; in one 
instance I founda tree growing from the middle of a mound 
which was a foot in diameter. . . . 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 eggs 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. 
It is at all times a very difficult bird to procure ; for although 
the rustling noise produced by its stiff pinions when flyiag may 
be frequently heard, the bird itself is seldom to be seen. Its 
flight is heavy and unsustained in the extreme; when first dis- 
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