BEGINNING AS A COLLECTOR 29 



from the fermentation of the vegetable heap in which 

 they are laid. The Australian scrub hen also lays 

 her eggs in a vegetable heap, relying on fermentation 

 to bring the young out, but in the case of the scrub 

 hen all the eggs are separated from one another by 

 layers of vegetation. There are several variations 

 in the method of depositing eggs among those creatures 

 which trust to natural agencies and not to brooding 

 for the hatching out. The crocodile, as I have said, 

 makes a vegetable mound and lays the eggs in a heap, 

 and covers them over with more vegetable matter. 

 The female turtle lays her eggs in a heap in the sand. 

 The black iguana (the carrion iguana) deposits her 

 eggs in a white-ants' mound, and leaves them there 

 to be hatched out. The sand iguana, which does 

 not live on carrion, lays its eggs in the sand. The 

 crocodile, by the way, is very fond of the eggs of the 

 scrub hen, and will often travel far inland searching 

 for the nests. 



I never thought of danger in connection with the 

 crocodiles in Northern Australia, but there is no 

 doubt that they occasionally get a human victim. 

 In the warm weather the crocodiles sleep in the 

 scrub a little away from the water during the day. In 

 the winter they sleep on the mud flats of the swamps. 

 They usually feed in the evening, and that is the 

 dangerous time for those who go near their haunts. 



Perhaps some notes on the habits of the mound- 

 building birds encountered in Australia and the 



