310 



Birds. 



THE MOUND-BIRD OF AUSTRALIA. 



(Megapodius tumulus.) 



IT is remarkable that this bird does not hatch its eggs 

 by incubation. It collects together a great heap. of decay- 

 ing vegetables as the place of deposit of iis eggs, thus 

 making a hotbed, arising from the decomposition of the 

 collected matter, by the heat of which the young are 

 hatched. This mound varies in quantity from two to 

 four cart-loads, and is not the work ol a single pair of 

 birds, but is the result of the united labour of rnany 



Mr. Gould, in his Birds of Australia, gives the follow- 

 ing account of the discovery of one of these nests by 

 Mr. Gilbert : 



" I landed beside a thicket, and had not proceeded far 

 from the shore, ere I came to a mound of sand and shells, 

 with a slight mixture of black soil, the base resting on a 

 sandy beach, only a few feet above high-water mark ; it 

 was enveloped in the large yellow-blossomed Hibiscus, 

 and was of a conical form, twenty feet in circumference at 

 the base, and about five feet in height. On pointing it 



