LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



49 



ruary, when, on another visit to Knocker's Bay, 

 he saw them exhumed from a depth of six feet, in 

 one of the largest mounds which he had seen. In 

 this mound, the holes ran down in an oblique di- 

 rection, from the centre of the hillock towards the 

 outer slope, so that, although the eggs were six 

 feet deep from the top, they were not more than 

 two or three from the side. Mr. Gilbert was in- 

 formed that the birds lay only a single egg in each 

 hole, and that, after the egg is deposited, the earth 

 is immediately thrown down lightly until the hole 

 is filled up. Then the upper part of the mound 

 is smoothed and rounded over. The top and sides 

 of the mound betray the recent excavations of the 

 bird, for the distinct impressions of its feet are 

 there left, and the earth is so lightly thrown over, 

 that the direction of the hole is easily ascertained 

 by thrusting in a slender stick, the ease or diffi- 

 culty of the penetration indicating the length of 

 time that has elapsed since the operations of the 

 bird. But to reach the eggs is no easy task. 

 The natives dig them out with their hands alone, 

 making only sufficient room to admit their bodies, 

 and to throw out the earth between their legs. 

 By grubbing thus with their fingers, they are en- 

 abled to follow the direction of the hole with 

 greater certainty ; and it will, sometimes, at a 

 depth of several feet, turn off sharply at right 

 angles, its direct course being thwarted by a clump 

 of wood, or some other obstacle. Persevering as 

 the savage is, his patience is often sorely tried. 

 Upon the occasion of extracting these two eggs, 

 the native dug down six times successively, to a 

 depth Qf six or seven feet at least, without finding 

 an egg, and came up so exhausted that he refused 

 to try again. But Mr. Gilbert's anxiety to verify 

 the statement made to him was now completely 

 roused ; and, by the offer of an additional reward, 

 he induced the grubber to try again. The seventh 

 trial was crowned with success ; and Mr. Gilbert's 

 gratification was complete, when the native with 

 pride and satisfaction held up an egg, and after 

 two or three more attempts displayed a second. 

 " Thus proving," adds worthy Mr. Gilbert, " how 

 cautious Europeans should be of disregarding the 

 narrations of these poor children of nature, because 

 they happen to sound extraordinary, or different 

 from anything with which they were previously 

 acquainted." 



In another mound, Mr. Gilbert, with the aid of 

 his native, obtained an egg from the depth of 

 about five feet, after excessive labor. This egg 

 was in a perpendicular position, and the holes in 

 this hillock which rose to the height of fifteen 

 feet, was sixty in circumference at the base, and 

 like the majority of those he had seen, was so 

 enveloped amid trees of thick foliage, as to pre- 

 clude the possibility of the sun's rays penetrating 

 to any part of it commenced at the outer edge 

 of the summit, and ran down obliquely to the cen- 

 tre. This mound felt quite warm to the hands. 



Now comes the question, How do the young 

 birds effect their escape from the tomb where they 

 are literally buried alive ? 



This sesms to be a mystery. Some natives 



told Mr. Gould that they emerged without aid ; 

 others declared that the old birds, when the ful- 

 ness of time was come, scratched down to their 

 offspring, and set them free. 



Mr. Gilbert found this megapode confined 

 almost exclusively to the dense thickets near the 

 sea-beach ; nor does it appear to be met with far 

 inland, except up the banks of creeks. The birds 

 go in pairs, or singly, feeding on the ground, on 

 roots, for the most part, which the powerful claws 

 of their great feet enable them to scratch up, and 

 on seeds, berries, and insects, especially the large 

 coleopterous kinds of the latter. They are not 

 easily procured, and though the whirring of their 

 wings as they fly away is often heard by those 

 who approach their haunts, the birds themselves 

 are seldom seen. The flight is heavy, and does 

 not seem capable of being long sustained. When 

 first disturbed, the jungle-fowl invariably makes 

 for a tree, and as soon as it there alights, stretch- 

 es out its head and neck in a straight line with 

 the body, and remains motionless in that attitude. 

 When thoroughly roused and alarmed, it flies hor- 

 izontally and laboriously for about a hundred 

 yards, with its legs hanging down. Mr. Gilbert 

 did not hear any note or cry ; but the natives de- 

 scribed and imitated it, and, according to them, it 

 clucks much in the fashion of a common domestic 

 fowl, the cluck ending in a peacock-like scream. 

 He observed that the birds continued to lay from 

 the end of August to March, when he left that 

 part of the country, and, if the natives are to be 

 believed, an interval of only four or five months, 

 including the driest and hottest portion of the 

 year, occurs between their breeding seasons. Mr. 

 Gilbert remarks that the composition of the mound 

 seems to influence the coloring of a thin epider- 

 mis,, with which the eggs are invested, and which 

 readily chips off, showing the shell to be white. 

 Thus, eggs deposited in a black soil, are exter- 

 nally of a dark reddish brown ; those placed in 

 sandy hillocks near the beach present a dirty, 

 yellowish-white hue. They differ in size consid- 

 erably ; but all are of the same form, with both 

 ends equal. The average size may be taken at 

 three inches five lines long, by two inches three 

 lines broad. 



The geographical distribution of this singular 

 group of birds is not confined to Australia, but 

 extends from the Philippine Islands through those 

 of the Indian Archipelago to Australia. 



The same Fauna that exhibits the anomalous 

 proceedings of the brush turkey, the native pheas- 

 ant, and the megapode, and the rude congeries of 

 materials in which they plant their eggs, leaving 

 them there to be hatched by vegetable fermenta- 

 tion and solar lieat, as the common snake con- 

 signs her eggs to the dunghill, presents the most 

 curious examples of bird architecture hitherto dis- 

 covered. The history of the elegant artificers of 

 these structures has more the semblance of an 

 Arabian tale than a sober statement of fact. The 

 bower-birds* of Australia display in the erection 



* Geneva, Ptilonorhynchus and Chlamydera. 



