188 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 
earth around and attached to the shell, thus showing a beau- 
tiful provision of Nature in preparing the necessary tender food 
for the-young bird on its emergence; one of the eggs I have 
preserved shows the White Ants’ tracks most plainly. The 
largest mound I saw, which appeared as if in-a state of pre- 
paration for eggs, measured forty-five feet in circumference, and 
if rounded in proportion on the top, would have been full five 
feet in height. I remarked that, in all the mounds not ready 
for the reception of eggs, the inside or vegetable portion was 
always wet and cold, and I imagine, from the state of others, 
that the bird turns out the whole of the materials to dry before 
depositing its eggs and covering them up with the soil. In both 
-eases where I found eggs, the upper part of the mound was 
perfectly and smoothly rounded over, so that anyone passing 
it without knowing the singular habit of the bird might very 
readily suppose it to be an ant-hill; mounds in this state 
always contain eggs within, while those without. eggs are not 
only zo¢ rounded over, but have the centres’ so scooped out 
that they form a hollow. The eggs are deposited in a very 
different manner from those of the AZegafodius ; instead of each 
being placed in a separate excavation in different parts. of, the 
mound, they are laid directly in the centre, all at the same 
depth, separated only by about three inches of earth, and so 
placed as to form a circle.” 
Eggs.—When fresh, of a delicate states white, but after re- 
maining in the mound a few days, they become dirty reddish- 
brown. Shell very thin.. Average measurements, oe 23 
inches. ) 
THE BRUSH-TURKEYS. GENUS TALEGALLUS. 
Talegallus, Lesson, Voy. * Coquille,” 1. ‘pt. il..p. 715 Pe 
Type, Z. cuviert, Less. 
Upper tail-coverts black, and zof extending to the end of the 
tail. 
Top of the head covered with narrow (sometimes hair-like) 
