248 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



The borders, lawn, and shrubbery, over which 

 it was allowed to range, presented an appearance 

 as if regularly swept, from the bird having 

 scratched to a common centre everything that lay 

 upon the surface. The mound in this case was 

 about three feet and a half high, and ten feet over. 

 On placing the arm in it, the temperature was 

 found to be about 90 or 95 Fahrenheit. The 

 bird itself was strutting about with a proud and 

 majestic air, sometimes parading round the heap, 

 at others perching on the top and displaying its 

 brilliantly coloured neck and wattle to the greatest 

 advantage. 



The habits of the leipoa, another Australian 

 species, are somewhat different, arising from the 

 difference of the localities it inhabits, which are 

 barren sandy plains in the interior of Western 

 Australia. The eggs are deposited in a mound of 

 sand, the formation of which is the work of both 

 sexes. The natives say they scratch up the sand 

 for many yards around, forming a mound of about 

 three feet in height : the inside being composed ot 

 alternate layers of dried leaves and grasses, among 

 which the eggs are deposited to the number of 

 twelve and upwards, and covered up by the birds 



