TALEGALLA. 



TALEGALLA. 



1003 



Cleavage distinct, perpendicular to the axis. It is easily separable 

 into thin plates, which are flexible, but not elastic. It is easily 

 scraped with a knife, and the powder is unctuous-to the touch. Colour 

 white, green, grayish, and blackish-green and red. Becomes negatively 

 electrical by friction. Lustre pearly. Transparent, translucent, 

 opaque. Specific gravity 2713. 



Crystallised Talc is mostly white, or of a light-green colour; is 

 met with in serpentine rocks in small quantity, with carbonate of 

 lime, actinolite, steatite, and massive talc, &c. It is found in the 

 mountains of Salzburg and the Tyrol : it occurs in many other parts 

 of the world, as in Cornwall, in Kynan's Cove, where a bed of it 

 underlies serpentine. It also occurs in Scotland, in Glen Tilt, Perth- 

 shire ; and in Saxony, Silesia, and Piedmont, &c. 



The massive varieties of Talc are less flexible than the crystallised : 

 they are principally of an apple-green colour, and sometimes of a 

 radiated structure. It is met with in considerable quantity in beds 

 in micaceous schists, gneis, and serpentine. 



Some of the varieties of Talc are infusible ; others become white, 

 and yield a small button of enamel with borax. 



Indurated Talc is massive, of a greenish-gray colour ; the structure 

 is schistose and curved : it is of a shining and sometimes of a pearly 

 lustre, and somewhat translucent. It is soft and rather unctuous to 

 the touch. Its specific gravity is 2'9. 



It occurs in primitive mountains hi clay-slate and serpentine, in 

 several countries on the continent of Europe ; in Britain, in Perthshire 

 and Banfishire in Scotland, and in the Shetland Islands. According 

 to Vauquelin, Lamellar Talc consists of 



Silica 62-0 



Magnesia 27'0 



Alumina 18 



Oxide of Iron 3'2 



Water 60 



100 



Steatite, Chlorite, Potstone, and other magnesian minerals are nearly 

 allied to Mica, and they are by some mineralogists considered as 

 varieties of the same substance. [STEATITE ; CHLORITE.] 



TALEGALLA, a genus of Birds belonging to the Megapodiinn:, 

 which Mr. G. 11. Gray makes the third and last sub-family of his 

 Palamedeidos. [PALAMEDEA.] 



The Megapodiinoc comprise the following genera: Talegalla, Less. 

 (Alectura, Lath.; Talegallui, Less. ; Numida, James ; Cathetunu, Sw.) ; 

 Megapodiut, Quoy et Gaim. ; Mexita(l), J. Geoffr. ; Menura, Shaw 

 (Parkiraoniiu, Bechst. ; Megapodiut, Wagl.); Alecthelia, Leas, (nee 

 Swains.). [CBACIDJI;.] 



Talegalla has the bill very robust, very thick, one-third of the length 

 of the head compressed above, with the upper mandible convex; 

 nostrils basal, lateral, oval-oblong, pierced in a large membrane ; lower 

 mandible less high but wider than the upper, nearly straight below, 

 with smooth edges, the branches widened at the base, and that width 

 filled up by a feathered membrane; cheeks entirely naked; head and 

 neck furnished with feathers with simple barbules. Wings rounded, 

 moderate, the first quill very short, the second rather longer, the third 

 longest of all, the fourth and fifth diminishing in length after the third. 

 Tail rather long, rounded ; tarsi rather robust, moderately long, fur- 

 nished with large scutella in front ; toes rather long, the middle 

 longest, the external shortest ; the three front toes furnished at their 

 origin with a membranous border, which is widest between the external 

 and middle toes ; claws convex, flattened below, slightly curved, and 

 moderately robust ; the hind-toe long, resting entirely on the ground, 

 and furnished with an equally robust claw. (Lesson.) 



Head anil Foot of Talrgalla. (Gould.) 



T. Lathami. Latham, in his 'General History of Birds' (vol. L), 

 described and figured this bird under the name of the New Holland 

 Vulture; but, correcting his error, he in the tenth volume, placed it 

 among the Gallinaceous Birds, with the generic name of Alectura, 

 which had been previously employed to designate a group of Fly- 

 catchers. 



M. Lesson places the genus at the end of the Phasianidcc. 



Mr. Swainson places it amongst the Vulturidic : yet it is no bird ol 

 prey at all. 



Mr. Gould, to whom we are indebted for a full and satisfactory 



account of the habits of this extraordinary bird, says : " After all the 

 'acts that have been stated, I trust it will be evident that its natural 

 situation is among the Ratoret, and that it forms one of a great family 

 of birds peculiar to Australia and the Indian Islands, of which Mega- 

 oodius forms a part; and in confirmation of this view I may add, 

 ;hat the sternum has the two deep emarginations so truly character- 

 istic of the Gallinacece ; at all events it is in no way allied to the 

 VuUuridce, and is nearly as far removed from Menura." It seems to 

 us that Talegalla Lathami may be considered, in a degree, as the 

 representative of the Turkey in Australia. 



The adult male of this bird has the whole of the upper surface, 

 wings, and tail, blackish-brown ; the feathers of the under surface 

 blackish-brown at the base, becoming silvery-gray at the tip ; skin of 

 the head and neck deep pink-red, thinly sprinkled with short hair-like 

 blackish-brown feathers; wattle bright yellow, tinged with red where 

 it unites with the red of the neck ; bill black ; irides and feet brown. 



Female about a fourth less than the male in size, but so closely 

 the same in colour aa to render a separate description unnecessary. 

 She also possesses the wattle, but not to so great an extent. (Gould.) 



It is about the size of a turkey. 



Wattled Talegalla (Talegalla Lathami). (Gould.) 



Mr. Gould gives the following synonyms : New Holland Vulture, 

 Latham; genus Alectura, Latham; Alectura Lathami, J. E. Gray; 

 Australian Vulture, Calhtturus Auttralis, Swainsou ; Meleagria Linde- 

 targii, Jameson ; Brush Turkey of the colonists ; Weelah of the 

 aborigines of the Namoi. 



Mr. Gould describes Talegalla Lathami, or the Wattled Talegalla, as 

 a gregarious bird, generally moving about in small companies, mucli 

 after the manner of the Gallinacece, and, like some species of that 

 tribe, as very shy and distrustful. When it is disturbed, he states 

 that it readily eludes pursuit by the facility with which it runs 

 through the tangled brush. If hard pressed, or where rushed upon 

 by their great enemy, the native dog, the whole company spring upon 

 the lowermost bough of some neighbouring tree, and, by a succession 

 of leaps from branch to branch, ascend to the top, and either perch 

 there or Jy off to another part of the brush. They resort also to the 

 branches of trees as a shelter from the sun in the middle of the day, 

 a habit which Mr. Gould notices as greatly tending to their destruction ; 

 for the sportsman is enabled to take a sure aim, and the birds, like 

 the ruffed grouse of America, will allow a succession of shots to be 

 fired till they are all brought down. 



But the most remarkable circumstance connected with the economy 

 of this bird is its nidification, for it does not hatch its eggs by incu- 

 bation. It collects together a great heap of decaying vegetables, as 

 the place of deposit of its eggs, thus making a hot-bed arising from 

 the decomposition of the collected matter, by the heat of which the 

 young are hatched. Mr. Gould describes this heap as the result of 

 several weeks' collection by the birds previous to the period of laying, 

 as varying in quantity from two to four cart-loads, and as of a per- 

 fectly pyramidical form. This mound, he states, is not the work of a 

 single pair of birds, but is the result of the united labour of many : 

 the same site appeared to Mr. Gould to be resorted to for several 

 years in succession, from the great size and entire decomposition of 

 the lower part, the birds adding a fresh supply of materials on each 

 occasion previous to laying. 



" The mode," says Mr. Gould in continuation, " in which the mate- 

 rials composing these mounds are accumulated is equally singular, 

 the bird never using its bill, but always grasping a quantity in its 

 foot, throwing it backwards to one common centre, and thus clearing 

 the surface of the ground for a considerable distance so completely, 

 that scarcely a leaf or a blade of grass is left. The heap being accumu- 

 lated, and time allowed for a sufficient heat to be engendered, the 

 eggs are deposited, not side by side, as is ordinarily the case, but 

 planted at the distance of nine or twelve inches from each other, and 



