46 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



a man might plant cucumber and melon seeds, he 

 would he taken for the most notorious fabulist 

 since the days of Bidpai. If he should enlighten 

 the neophyte further, and instruct him that the 

 birds collect the materials for this hotbed them- 

 selves, and bide their time till the fermentation 

 has reached the proper point, till, like the patent 

 incubator, it is fit for hatching the eggs, he would 

 stand a very good chance of being set down as a 

 member of the great family of Munchausen, of 

 adventurous and marvellous memory. But nothing 

 is more true. 



The brush turkey belongs to a family of birds 

 or, if you wish to be hypercritical, learned reader, 

 a sub-family which never incubate, but having 

 collected vegetable materials which they know 

 will heat to a proper point without, like an ill- 

 saved hayrick, bursting out into combustion, or 

 getting up into a sullen baking point, which would 

 be equally destructive of the vital principle leave 

 their eggs to the genial warmth of this half-nat- 

 ural, half-artificial mother. 



The genera of this family at present known are 

 Talegalla, Leipoa, and Megapodius, all inhabitants 

 of that marvellous country which seems to be a 

 remnant still left to give us a notion of a very an- 

 cient state of this planet. 



Talegalla Lathami has been in its time a sore 

 puzzle to systematists. More than one have made 

 it a vulture, and have seized upon it as such to fill 

 up a blank in a favorite system. It is no such 

 thing. If you wish to see a perfect image of the 

 bird, possess yourself of Mr. Gould's admirable 

 work on The Birds of Australia. He has the 

 merit of first clearing up this dark chapter in or- 

 .nithology, and any amusement or instruction which 

 may be derived from the perusal of this portion of 

 this paper is due to him. He is of opinion that 

 the natural situation of the bird is among the 

 rasorial forms, and that it is one of a great family 

 peculiar to Australia and the Indian Islands, of 

 which Megapodius constitutes a part ; and, in con- 

 , formation of his view, he notices the two deep 

 emarginations of the sternum, so truly character- 

 istic of the gallinaceous race. He is right. 



The upper surface of the adult male, its wings 

 and tail, are of a blackish brown ; but, on the 

 .under surface, the feathers are blackish brown at 

 the base, going into silver-gray at the ends. The 

 skin of the head and neck is of a deep pink, verg- 

 ing on red, and thinly sprinkled with short hair, 

 like feathers of a blackish brown. His wattle is 

 of a bright yellow, tinged with red where it joins 

 the red of the neck. His bill is black, and the 

 irides of his eyes and his feet are brown. 



In size, the female is about a fourth less than 

 he male, but very similar in color, only her wat- 

 tle is less extensive. 



Size of well-developed specimens, nearly that 

 of a turkey. 



Now for the habits of this extraordinary feath- 

 ered biped. 



The brush turkey is gregarious, going in small 

 companies, and very wary and suspicious. Like 



the pheasants and some others of the gallinaceous 

 tribe it is a cunning runner, and often escapes 

 through the mazes of the brush. The native dog 

 is their great enemy, and when this destroyer is 

 upon them, and, indeed, whenever they are hard 

 pressed, if the opportunity offers, they all spring 

 upon the lowest bough of a tree, leaping from 

 branch to branch till they reach the top. There 

 they either perch or take wing to another part of 

 the cover. When undisturbed, they seek the 

 sheltering branches of trees during the heats of the 

 day. The sportsman knows this, and, taking ad- 

 vantage of their fatal siesta, knocks them over one 

 after the other ; for they take no warning from 

 the fate of their companions, remaining to be shot 

 at till all are bagged, or the sportsman is tired of 

 plying his gun. 



In all this there is nothing very extraordinary, 

 surely ? 



Certainly not, observing sir, or madam ; but 

 patience. 



It is in the reproduction of the species that the 

 anomalous proceedings of the bird are manifested. 

 Collecting gradually a quantity of decaying vege- 

 tables, the bird makes a hotbed. Several weeks 

 are patiently employed in bringing the materials 

 together, till, at length, a mound, consisting of a 

 congeries of from two to four cart-loads, is formed. 

 But it must not be considered as the labor of an 

 individual, or of a pair, for many join in the work. 

 When once established, a forcing-bed of this de- 

 scription does duty for many years ; that is, the 

 same site is resorted to, and as the lower part 

 decomposes the birds superadd an additional sup- 

 ply previous to depositing their eggs. 



In the construction of the most elaborate of 

 bird's-nests the bill is the principal instrument of 

 action, the feet performing a very subordinate 

 part in the operation. In the instance before us 

 the case is reversed. The foot is the agent in 

 collecting and depositing ; the bill is not used for 

 those purposes at all. The bird grasps a quantity 

 in its foot, throwing it backwards to the common 

 centre of deposit. The surface of the adjoining 

 ground is thus cleared for a considerable distance 

 so completely that hardly a leaf or blade of grass 

 is left. When this pyramidal vegetable mound 

 has had a sufficient time to heat, so as to be of the 

 proper temperature, the large eggs are inserted, 

 not side by side, as in ordinary cases, but planted 

 at regular distances from each other, some nine or 

 twelve inches apart, perfectly upright, and with 

 the large end downwards, each egg being buried 

 at nearly an arm's depth. They are then covered 

 up and left till they are hatched. 



John Hunter found the temperature of a sitting 

 hen to be 104 of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and 

 ascertained the heat to be the same when the ball 

 of the instrument was placed under her. Having 

 taken some of the eggs from xmde'r the same hen, 

 when the chick was about three-parts formed, he 

 broke a hole in the shell, and introducing the ball 

 of the thermometer he found that the quicksilver 

 rose to 99. In some that were addled he found 



