LAUGHING JACKASS. 231 



viously been added to the collection. On the birds being placed 

 in a large enclosure with an abundance of vegetable material 

 within reach, the male began at once to gather it into a heap, 

 working with his powerful feet precisely as was stated by Mr.. 

 Gould. When the mound had risen to the height of alxwt four 

 feet, and had been brought to an even surface, a depression was 

 made in the centre, and in this the eggs were deposited as they 

 were laid, arranged in a circle about fifteen inches below the 

 summit of the mound, with the smaller end of the egg point- 

 ing downwards. The male bird watched the temperature of the 

 mound very carefully, and an opening was always maintained in 

 the centre of the circle of eggs no doubt for the purpose of 

 ventilation. In about a month after the first egg was laid a 

 young bird was hatched. It appears, however, that for some 

 hours after chipping out of the egg it remains in the mound 

 without making any effort to extricate itself ; and what is still 

 more curious, for the first day or two after it has left the mound 

 it retires there again early in the afternoon, and is carefully 

 covered up for the night by its assiduous father. 



No less than five birds were hatched out of ten eggs which 

 were deposited in the mound in the Gardens ; so that it would 

 appear there is no great improbability of this valuable and 

 interesting bird being ultimately added to our poultry yards. 

 And if it does come amongst us it will hardly come alone, for it 

 has some three or four allies in the Australian bush distinguished 

 by the same remarkable habits, and equally appropriate with 

 itself to adorn the dinner-table. 



One other Australian bird in this aviary remains to be noticed. 

 It is the Gigantic Kingfisher (Dacdo yigantea') zoologically, but 

 popularly it has almost as many aliases as some of its human 

 companions in the bush. Its most usual name perhaps is the 

 very elogant and expressive one of the Laughing Jackass, which 

 it has earned for itself by the peculiar loud gurgling laugh with 

 which it proclaims its whereabouts to the traveller in the bush. 

 This rude and powerful lau^h is the first sound heard in the 

 dawn of the morning, when the woods resound with it on every 

 side ; it rings out again with the same frequency and volume at 

 sunset ; and the regularity with which the bird thus announces 

 the dawn and the decline of day has procured it the appropriate 

 name of the " Settler's Clock." 



