THE DEPOSITION OF EGGS. 



a young bird was found in a hole about two feet 

 deep. It was lying on a few dry withered leaves, 

 and appeared to be only a few days old. So far 

 Mr. Gilbert was satisfied, that these mounds had 

 some connection with the bird's mode of incuba- 

 tion, but he was still sceptical as to the proba- 

 bility of these young birds ascending from so 

 great a depth as the natives represented, and his 

 suspicions were confirmed by his being unable to 

 induce the native, in this instance, to search for 

 the eggs, his excuse being that " he knew it 

 would be of no use, as he saw no traces of the old 

 birds having recently been there." He took the 

 greatest care of the young bird, intending to rear 

 it if possible. It was pla^^^jSLm a box, having a 

 large portion of sand in it. It fed rather freely 

 on bruised Indian corn, but proved of so wild and 

 intractable a disposition, that it would not recon- 

 cile itself to such close confinement, and effected 

 its escape the third day. During the period 

 it remained in captivity, it was incessantly occu- 

 pied in scratching up the sand into heaps, and 

 the rapidity, with which it threw the sand from 

 one end of the box to the other, was quite sur- 

 prising for so young and small a bird, its size not 

 being larger than that of a small quail. At night 

 it was so restless, that he was constantly kept 

 awake by the noise it made in its endeavours 

 to escape. In scratching up the sand it only used 



