Megapodes.] 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



and thus cleaiins; 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 ac- 

 cumulated, 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 buried at nearly an arm's depth, peifectly up- 

 right, with the large end upwards : they are covered 

 up as they are laid, and allowed to remain until 

 hatched. I have been credibly informed, both by 

 natives and settlers living near their haiuits, that it 

 is not an unusual event to obtain nearly a bnshel of 

 eggs at one time from a single heap ; and as they 

 are delicious eating, they are eagerly sought after. 

 Some of the natives state that the females are con- 

 stantly in the neighbourhood of the heap about the 

 time the young are likely to be hatched, and fre- 

 quently uncover and cover them up again, appa- 

 rently for the purpose of assisting those that may 

 have appeared; while others have informed me 

 that the eggs are merely deposited, and the young 

 allowed to force their way unassisted. In all proba- 

 bility, as Nature has adopted this mode of reproduc- 

 tion, she has also furnished the tender birds with 

 the power of sustaining themselves from the earliest 

 period: and tlie great size of the egg would equally 

 lead to this conclusion, since in so large a space it 

 is reasonable to suppose that the bird would be 

 much more developed than is usually found in eggs 

 of smaller dimensions. In further confirmation of 

 this point, I may add, that in searching for eggs in 

 one of the mounds, I discovered the remains of a 

 young bird, apparently just excluded from the shell, 

 and which was clothed with feathers, not with down, 

 as is usually the case.* The upriu:ht position of the 

 eggs tends to strengthen the opinion that they are 

 never disturbed after being deposited, as it is well 

 known that the eggs of birds which are placed hori- 

 zontally are frequently fumed during incubation. 



The same author relates that these birds, while 

 stalking about the wood, frequently utter a loud 

 clucking noise ; and, in various parts of the bush, 

 he observed depressions in the earth, which the 

 natives informed him were made by the birds in 

 dusting themselves. The stomach is stated by Mr. 

 Gould to be extremely muscular ; and he found the 

 crop of one which he dissected filled with seeds, 

 berries, and a few insects. 



The composure with which these birds sit to be 

 shot at, as above noticed, must, as Mr. Gould ob- 

 serves, lead to an early extinction of the race ; an 

 event, he remarks, nmch to be regretted, since, 

 independently of its being an interesting bird for 

 the aviary, its flesh is extremely delicate, tender, 

 and juicy. Tliere is no doubt that this species may 

 be domesticated, and it would make a noble addition 

 to tliose foreign denizens of the poultry -yard which 

 enrich our homesteads and tables. 



In the Talegalla the beak is robust and convex ; 

 the wings are moderate ; the tail ample ; the head 

 and neck furnished with short hair-like feathers; the 

 cheeks naked, and the front of the neck presents a 

 carunculated naked skin, or sort of wattle, reminding 

 us of that of the turkey. In the adult male the 

 whole of the upper surface, wings, and tail are 

 blackish brown ; the feathers of the under surface 

 blackish brown at the base, becoming silvery grey 

 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. 



The female is about a fourth less than the male 

 in size, but so closely the same in colour as to ren- 

 der a separate description unnecessary. She also 

 possesses the wattle, but not to so great an extent. 

 Size about that of a turkey. (Gould, ' Birds of 

 Australia.') Fig. 1787 represents the Head and Foot 

 of the Talegalla. 



1788. — The Ocellated Leipoa 

 {Leipoa occUata, Gould). Native Pheasant of the 

 colonists ; Ngow of the aborigines of the lowlands, 

 and Ngow-oo of those of the highlands of Western 

 Australia. 



In this genus the beak is more feeble than in 

 Talegalla, the head clothed with feathers and 

 crested. Fig. 1789 represents the Head and Foot 

 of Leipoa. 



This species abounds in the countiy north of 

 Perth (VV. Austr.), and in the barren sandy plains 

 of the interior, one hundred miles north and east of 

 York. It was seen by Captain Grey at Gantheaume 

 Bay, and, according to the natives, exists at King 

 George's Sound. In size it is inferior to the Tale- 

 galla, more slender and more elegantly formed. 

 According to the accounts, since confirmed, col- 

 lected by Mr. John Gilbert from G. Moore, Esq., 

 advocate-general, Mr. Armstrong, the aboriginal 



* 'rtiPse points have he^-n recf ntiv fully conrirmed, and Mr.^ Gould 

 haa a wrip5 of the rao^t vriliiahle and interesting^ specimens, with de- 

 tails, whirh he has received from his intelligent and assiduous col- 

 lector now in Auitxalia. 



interpreter, and some of the more intelligent natives 

 of Western Australia, the Ocellaled Leipoa is a 

 giound-biid, never taking to a tree except when 

 closely hunted ; when hard pursued, it will frequently 

 nin its head info a bush, and is then easily taken. 

 Food generally consisting of seeds and berries. The 

 note mouinful, very like that of a pigeon, but with 

 a more inward tone. Eggs deposited in a mound of 

 sand, the formation of which is the work of boili 

 sexes. According to the natives, the biids scratch 

 up the sand for many yards arounil, forming a mound 

 about three feet in height, the inside of which is 

 constructed of alternate layers of dried leaves, 

 grasses, &c., among which twelve eggs and up- 

 wards are deposited, and are covered up by the 

 birds as they are laid ; or, as the natives express it, 

 " the countenances of the eggs are never visible." 

 Upon these eggs the bird never sits, but when she 

 has laid out her lay, as the henwives say, the whole 

 are covered up, when the mound of sand resembles 

 an ant's nest. The eggs, which are white, and veiy 

 slightly tinged with red, are hatched by the heat of 

 the sun's rays, the vegetable lining retaining suf- 

 ficient warmth during the night ; they are deposited 

 in layer?, no two eggs being suffered to lie without 

 a division. The natives, who are very fond of the 

 eggs, rob the.se hillocks two or three times in a 

 season ; and they judge of the number of eggs in a 

 mounil by the quantity of feathers lying about. If 

 the feathers be abundant, the hillock is full ; and 

 then they immediately open and take the whole. 

 The bird will then begin to lay again, again to be 

 robbed, and will fiequently lay a third time. Upon 

 questioning one of the men attached to Mr. Moore's 

 expedition, he gave to Mr. Gilbeit a similar account 

 of its habits and mode of incubating; adding, that 

 in all the mounds they opened, they found ants 

 almost as numerous as in an ant-hill, and that in 

 many instances that part of the mound surrounding 

 the lower portion of the eggs had become so hard 

 that they were obliged to chi]) round them with a 

 chisel to get the eggs out ; the insides of the mounds 

 were always hot. Captain Grey ('.Journal of Two 

 Expeditions,' &c., 1841) saw one largo nest com- 

 posed of a heap of sand, dead grass, and boughs, as 

 least nine feet in diameter and thrc; in height, and 

 had observed them even considerably larger. They 

 occurred in dry and sandy spots, covered most 

 densely with a dwarf species of Leptospermum, 

 through which the traveller cannot without the 

 greatest difficulty force a passage, if he chance to 

 leave the beaten path. The plumage is as follows : 

 — head and ci'est blackish biown ; neck and shoulders 

 dark ash-grey; fore part of neck from the throat to 

 the breast with lanceolate feathers which are black 

 with a white stripe down the centre ; fealhers of the 

 back and wings marked with three distinct ba;uls of 

 greyish white, brown and black near the tip of each, 

 the marks assuming an oceliated form; primaries 

 brown, willi zigzag lines near the tip; under sur- 

 face pale buff; fianks barred with black ; tail 

 blackish brown, broadly tipped with buff; bill 

 black; legs blackish brown. (Gould, 'Birds of 

 Australia.') 



1790. — The Mound-making Megapode 

 {Megapodius Tumulus, Gould). Jungle-fowl of the 

 colonists of Port Essington; Ooiegooiga of the 

 aboiigines of the Coburg Peninsula. In the genus 

 Megapodius the beak is slender, nearly straight, and 

 much resembles that of a fowl ; the head is crested ; 

 the toes are very large and robust, and the claws of 

 great size and strength. Fig. 1791 represents the 

 Head and Foot of Megapodius. 



On Mr. Gilbert's arrival at Port Essington his 

 attention was attracted to numerous great mounds 

 of earth which were pointed out to him by some of 

 the residents as being the tumuli of the aliorigines. 

 The natives, on the other hand, assured him that 

 they were formed by the Jnngle-fowl for the pur- 

 pose of hatching its eggs. But this last statement 

 appeared so extiaordinary, and so much at variance 

 with the general habits of birds, that no one in the 

 settlement believed them, and the great size of the 

 eggs brought in by them as the produce of this bird 

 strengthened the doubt of the veracity of their 

 infoimation. Mr. Gilbeit, however, knowing the 

 habits of Leipoa, took with him an intelligent 

 native, and proceeded about the middle of Novem- 

 ber to Knocker's Bay, a part of Port Essington 

 harbour comparatively but little known, and wheie 

 he had been informed a number of these birds were 

 to be seen. He landed beside a thicket, and had 

 not advanced far from the shore when he 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, was of a 

 conical form, twenty feet in circumference at the 

 base, and about five feet high. On asking the 

 native what it was, he replied ' Oregooiga Rambal ' 

 (Jungle-fowl's house or nest). Mr. Gilbert scram- 

 bled up the sides of it, and found a you-ig bird in a 



hole about two feet deep ; the nestling, apparently 

 only a few days old, was lying on a few dry withered 

 leaves. The native assured Mr. Gilbeit that it 

 would be of no use to look for eggs, as there were 

 no traces of the old birds having lately been there. 

 Mr. Gilbert took the utmost care of the young biid, 

 placed it in a moderate-sized box, into which he 

 introduced a large portion of sand, and fed it on 

 bruised Indian corn, which it took rather freely. It* 

 disposition was wild and intractable, and it effected 

 its escape on the third day. While it remained in 

 captivity, it was incessantly employed in scratching 

 up the sand into heaps, and Mr. Gilbert remarks 

 that the rapidity with which it threw the fand from 

 one end of the box to the other was ([uite surprising 

 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 Mr. Gilbert was constantly kept 

 awake by the noise it made, in endeavouiing to 

 e.scane. In scratching up the sand the bird only 

 employed one foot, and having giasped a handful, 

 as it were, threw the sand behind it with but little 

 apparent exertion, and without shifting its standing 

 position on the other leg. 



Mr. Gilbert continued to receive the eggs without 

 any opportunity of seeing them taken from the 

 ground unlil the beginning of February, when, on 

 again visiting Knocker's Bay, he saw two taken 

 from a depth of six feet, in one of the largest 

 mounds he had met with. In this instance the 

 holes ran down in an oblique direction from the 

 centre towards the outer slope of the hillock, so that 

 although the eggs were six feet deep from I lie sum- 

 mit, they were only two or three feet from the side. 

 "The birds,' says Mr. Gilbert in continuation, "are 

 said to lay but a single egg in each hole, and after 

 the egg is deposited the earth is immediately thrown 

 down lightly until the hole is filled up ; the upper 

 paitof the moimd is then smoothed and roumJed 

 over. It is easily known when a Jungle-fowl has 

 been recently excavating, from the distinct impres- 

 sions of its feet on the top and sides of the mound, 

 and the earth being so lightly thrown over, that 

 with a slender stick the direction of the hole is 

 readily detected, the ease or difficulty of thrusting 

 the stick down indicating the length of time that 

 may have elapsed since the bird's operations. Thus 

 far it is easy enough ; but to reach the eggs requires 

 no little excriion and perseverance. The natives 

 dig them up with their hands alone, and only make 

 sufficient room to admit their bodies, and to throw 

 out the earth between their legs; by grubbing with 

 their fingers alone they are enabled to follow the 

 direction of the fiole with greater certainty, which 

 will sometimes, at a depth of several feet, turn off 

 abruptly at right angles, its direct course being ob- 

 structed by a clump of wood or some other impedi- 

 ment. Their patience is, however, often put to se- 

 vere trials. In the present instance the native dug 

 down six times in succession to a depth of at least 

 six or seven feet without finding an egg, and at the 

 last attempt came up in such a state of exhaustion 

 that he refused to try again ; but my interest was 

 now two much excited to relinquish the opportunity 

 of verifying the native's statements, and by the offer 

 of an additional rew^ard I induced him to try again ; 

 this seventh trial proved successful, and my gratifi- 

 cation was complete when the native, with iqual 

 pride and satisfaction, held up an egg, and, after two 

 or three more attempts, produced a second : thus 

 proving how cautious Europeans should be of dis- 

 regarding the narrations of these poor children of 

 nature, because they happen to sound extraordinary 

 or different from anything with which they were 

 previously acquainted." 



Upon another occasion Mr. Gilbert and his native, 

 after an hour's excessive labour, obtained an egg 

 from the depth of about five feet. It was in a 

 perpendicular position. The holes in this mound 

 (which was fifteen feet high and sixty in circumfe- 

 rence at the base, and like the majority of those 

 that he had seen, so enveloped in thickly foliaged 

 trees as to preclude the possibility of the sun's rays 

 reaching any part of it) commenced at the outer 

 edge of the suijimit and ran down obliquely towards 

 the centre : their direction therefore, Mr. Gilbert 

 observes, is not uniform. The mound was quite 

 warm to the hands. 



" The Jungle-fowl is almost exclusively confined 

 to the dense thickets immediately adjacent to the 

 sea-beach : it appears never to go far inland, except 

 along the banks of creeks. It is always met with 

 in pairs or quite solitary, and feeds on the ground, 

 its food consisting of roots, which its powerful claws 

 enable it to scratch up with the utmost facility, and 

 also of seeds, berries, and insects, particulaily the 

 larger species of Colcoptera. It is at all times a 

 very difficult bird to procure ; for although the 

 rustling noise produced by its stiff pinions when 

 flying away be frequently heard, the bird itself is 

 seldom to be seen. Its flight is heavy and unsus- 

 tained in the extreme ; when first disturbed it in- 

 variably flies to a tree, and on alighting stretches 



