706 Mr. Edwin Asliby on the [Ibis, 



into the. scrub again to do sentry-go. Well, Mrs. Mallee- 

 Fowl began to open out the egg-chamber ; every few 

 minutes she would pause and appeared to settle her neck 

 and breast against the sides of the egg-chamber. The sand 

 was cleared away until there was about an inch left covering 

 the eggs, then the male joined her and both disappeared. 

 On visiting the nest at 4 P.M. (the shadows "were just on 

 the nest), I found that the sand had been replaced." 



" I repeated this observation the following tlay and again a 

 week later, and the sand was always replaced before the 

 shadows fell on the nest." 



Mr. T. P. Bellchambers of tSouth Australia wrote me on 

 7 March, 1922, as follows: — "All covering material is 

 mixed with desiccated leaves. For sunning purposes, i. e. 

 'solar heat,' the nest is opened almost to tlie level of the 

 eggs — this may be done as often as five days out of seven. 

 The refilling is a gradual process and takes all day, as it is 

 replaced in layers as soon as it gets hot. The male does all 

 the hard graft, grasps and throws all the material behind 

 him." 



It will be seen that, while on the important point, the 

 utilization of solar heat, all the three observers quoted above 

 are in agreement, Mr. Mann adds " I do know that they (the 

 Mallee-Fowl) open out the nests mostly in the morning, but 

 have the impression that they are not long left open '^ — 

 the depth of the initial excavation varies somewhat. 



In the example that came under my personal observation, 

 the excavation was considerably deeper than was the case 

 with the nest examined by Mr. Machell ; we may therefore 

 conclude that this varies with the depth of the sand and the 

 nature of the soil. Again, while Mr. Bellchambers only 

 quotes the n)ale as doing the filling work, Mr, Machell 

 records the work as done by the female. Some differences 

 may be due to the fact that Mr. Bellchambers's birds are in 

 semi-captivit3^ 



I think we may conclude that, while this work may 

 probably be largely undertaken by the male, both sexes 

 share therein. Mr. MachelFs observation of the bird pressing 



