THE MO UND-B UILDERS THE BR USH~ TURKE YS. 227 



Wallace, during his celebrated expedition to the Malay Archipelago, found 

 the maleo practising all the usual nesting devices of the mound-builders. 

 The female lays eggs at intervals, and he says that the size of the latter 

 precludes the female bird from having more than one fully-developed egg at 

 the same time. The eggs are', therefore, laid at an intervening period of ten 

 or twelve days, and are deposited in a mound of loose, hot, black sand. "In 

 the months of August and Septem- 

 ber," he writes, "they come down in 

 pairs to the nesting-place, and scratch 

 holes three or four feet deep, just 

 above high-water mark, where the 

 female deposits a single large egg, 

 which she covers over with about a 

 foot of sand, and then returns to the 

 forest." Each female is supposed to 

 lay six or eight eggs during the 

 season, the male assisting her in 



making the hole, coming down and _^_^ 



returning with her Many birds, Fig 5 _ THE MALEQ (Megacephalum 



according to Dr. Wallace, lay in the maleo). 



same hole, as a dozen eggs are often 

 found together. 



Some of these birds gain their name of brush-" turkeys " from the wattle 

 which is seen on the base of the neck in the genera Catheturus and dEpypodius. 

 Though devoid of these fleshy wattles, which are turkey-like, 

 the remaining genus, Talegallus, is of large size, and, in a The 



country which possesses no real Game-Bird of the kind, Brush-Turkeys, 

 might pass for a near approach to a turkey in size and 

 general appearance. Of the habits of the Australian brush-turkey (Catheturns 

 lathami), Gould gives the following account: "At the commencement of 

 spring, this species scratches together an immense heap of decaying vegetable 

 matter as a depository for its eggs, and trusts to the heat engendered by the 

 process of fermentation for the development of its young. The heap em- 

 ployed for this purpose is collected by the birds during several weeks previous 

 to the period of laying ; it varies in size from that of two to that of many 

 cart-loads, and in most instances is of a pyramidal form. The construction of 

 the mound is either the work of one pair of birds, or, as some suppose, the 

 united labours of several ; the same site appears to be resorted to for several 

 years in succession, the birds adding a fresh supply of materials each succeeding 

 season. The material composing these mounds is accumulated by the bird's 

 grasping a quantity of earth in its foot and throwing it backwards to one com- 

 mon centre, the surface of the ground being so completely scratched over, that 

 scarcely a leaf or a blade of grass is left. The mound being completed, arid 

 time allowed for a sufficient heat to be engendered, the eggs are deposited in 

 a circle at the distance of nine or twelve inches from each other, and buried 

 more than an arm's depth, with the large end upwards ; they are covered up 

 as they are laid, and allowed to remain until they are hatched. I have been 

 credibly informed, both by natives and by settlers living near their haunts, 

 that it is not an unusual event to obtain half a bushel of eggs at one time 

 from a single mound. Some of the natives state that the females are con- 

 stantly in the neighbourhood of the mound about the time when the young 

 ones are liable to be hatched, and that they frequently uncover and cover 



