194 LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 
day to lay, but never succeeded in ascertaining which of the 
parent birds opens the nest. The aborigines inform me that 
the male bird always performs this office ; and I usually found 
my black boys very correct in their statements of this kind. 
After robbing a nest, it is necessary to replace the different 
layers as they were found ; for if the lowest is too much mixed 
up with the others, or the top tumbled into the excavations 
made in the bottom one, the birds will invariably forsake the 
mound ; so that I found it always necessary to carefully re- 
place the different layers as I found them. It is not so with 
the Aegapodius duperreyt, which species does not seem to care 
how much the mound is tumbled about, so that there is suffi- 
cient débris left to.burrow in. ..: . -. The greatest number 
of eggs taken from one mound at one time was thirty-six. 
This was a very old mound, and resorted to by several indi- 
viduals.” 
Mr. Gould observes :—‘‘ When disturbed, the Wattled Tale- 
gallus readily eludes pursuit by the facility with which it runs 
through the tangled brush. If hard pressed, or when rushed upon 
by its great enemy the native dog, it springs upon the lowermost 
bough of some neighbouring tree, and by a succession of leaps 
from branch to branch ascends to the top, and either perches 
there or flies off to another part of the brush. It is also in the 
habit of resorting to the branches of trees as a shelter from the 
mid-day sun—a peculiarity that greatly tends to their destruc- 
tion ; for, like the Ruffed Grouse of America, when assembled 
in small companies they will allow a succession of shots to be 
fired until they are all brought down. 
‘“‘While stalking about the woods the Tale seine frequently 
utters a rather loud clucking noise; but whether this sound is 
uttered by the female only I could not ascertain ; still I think 
such is the case, and that the spiteful male, who appears to de- 
light in expanding his richly-coloured fleshy wattles and un- 
mercifully thrashing his helpmate, is generally mute. 
‘In various parts of the brush I observed depressions in 
