34 THE HUMAN SIDE OF BIRDS 



in succession are placed in the interstices, but al- 

 ways in the same plane, so at last there is a circle 

 of eight eggs, all standing upright in the sand, with 

 several inches of sand intervening between each. 

 The male bird assists the female in opening and 

 covering up the mound, and provided the birds are 

 not themselves disturbed, the female continues to 

 lay in the same mound, even after it has been sev- 

 eral times robbed. The natives say that the hen 

 bird lays an egg every day." 



The eggs are hatched by the heat engendered by 

 the decaying vegetation, and the young birds, un- 

 aided, push their way slowly to the outer world. 

 The parent bird forages in the neighbourhood, 

 awaiting the brood, and soon finds them and be- 

 gins their rearing. Thus the mound is not used 

 as a nesting-place in the strict sense as with other 

 less educated birds, but as an incubator; and the 

 mother bird escapes the long monotonous task of 

 hatching the eggs by the heat of her body. 



Other birds build even bigger mounds than the 

 mallee; some of these have been known to measure 

 fifteen feet in height and sixty feet in circumfer- 

 ence. The jungle fowl builds a mound of varying 

 proportions, never less than five feet in height. 

 Generally these mounds are placed over or near ant- 



