THE ilOUND-BUILDERS. 287 



few strong strokes of tlie oars, his canoe is left to 

 glide on by her own momentum, and tlie coral gar- 

 dens pass in review below with a magical effect like 

 a panorama. 



At Roban I remained with my men three days, 

 and, as we were nearer the shore, the mosquitoes did 

 not torment us as badly as pre\dously at our hut near 

 the mountains. This proved to be a favorite locality 

 of the castori rajah, or " prince parrot," which I had 

 already seen in Ceram, and I secured two or three 

 pairs of them here, but I was specially anxious to 

 get a specimen of the malaijii, as the Malays strange- 

 ly name a bird, the Megapodius Forsteni, which is 

 allied to the hen. The common name for these birds 

 is " mound-builders," fi'om their peculiar habit of 

 scratching together gi'eat heaps of sand and sticks, 

 which are frequently twenty or twenty-five feet in 

 diameter, and five feet high. These great hillocks 

 are their nests, and here they deposit their eggs. 

 There is also another species here, the M. Wallacei, 

 which burrows deeply in the sand. The natives 

 brought me one specimen, which they caught while 

 she was crawling up fi'om her hidden nest. I kept 

 her alive for some time, but, after laying an eg^ 

 more than one-third as large as her whole body, 

 she died. Two eggs of the same dimensions were 

 found at the bottom of the tunnel she had made in 

 the loose sand. This ])ird usually comes down from 

 the hills in the early part of the evening to deposit its 

 eggs, and then its wailing cry is occasionally heard, 

 but it is so extremely shy, that it is one of the 

 most difficult of all the birds on the island to procure. 



