NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 145 



three feet in height, which both sexes have contributed 

 to raise, and to form which the natives say that the birds 

 scratch up the sand all around for many yards. The 

 inside of the mound presents alternate layers of dried 

 leaves, grasses, &c. ; among which twelve eggs, or more, 

 are deposited, and covered up by the buxls as they are 

 laid, till the process is complete, when the sandy mound 

 presents the appearance of an ants' nest. The eggs, 

 which are about the size of three of a common fowl, 

 white, slightly tinged with red, are thus left to be 

 hatched by the heat of the sun's rays, the vegetable 

 materials retaining sufficient warmth to keep them at 

 a proper temperature during the night ; for the eggs are 

 deposited in layers, and no two eggs are suffered to lie 

 without an intervening division. 



The hillocks are robbed by the natives two or three 

 times in the season, and they conclude that the number 

 of eggs in a mound are many or few by the quantity of 

 feathers scattered about. If there be abundance of 

 feathers it is a sign that the hillock is full, and they 

 immediately open it and take the whole deposit. The 

 hen then lays again, and when her complement is com- 

 plete is again robbed, when she will frequently lay a 

 third time. In the mounds ants are often found as 

 numerous as in an ant-hill ; and sometimes that part of 

 the hillock which surrounds the lower portion of the 

 eggs becomes so hard, that a chisel is necessary to get 

 them out. 



Captain Grey, of the 83rd regiment, informed Mr, 

 Gould that he had never met with these nest-mounds 

 except where the soil was dry and sandy, and so thickly 

 covered with a dwarf species of LeptospermuTn as to 

 render it almost imjDOssible for a traveller to force his 

 way through if he strays from the native paths. In those 

 close scrubby woods small open glades occur occasionally, 

 and there he found the ngow-oo's nest, consisting of a 



H 



