MEGAPODIIDJE. BIRDS. THE MOUND-BIRD. 



395 



belly and the tips of the tail-feathers white ; the head 

 is not crested, and the true bill is red. This bird is an 

 inhabitant of Mexico ; in its habits it resembles the 

 preceding species. 



THE CRESTED GUAN (Penelope cristata), an inhabi- 

 tant of Guiana and Brazil, is about the same size as the 

 Curassow, and is of a blackish-bronze colour, glossed 

 with green, with the neck and breast spotted with 

 white, and the belly and legs, the rump, and lower 

 tail-coverts reddish. The head is adorned with a thick 

 crest, which the bird can elevate or depress at pleasure. 

 The base of the upper mandible is covered with a cere, 

 and the cheeks and throat are naked ; the latter being 

 furnished with a large pendant wattle, capable of 

 dilatation. The cheeks are violet, and the wattle of 

 the throat scarlet. 



This remarkable bird is found in small flocks in the 

 forests, where it feeds chiefly upon seeds and fruits, 

 which it seeks upon the ground ; it walks and runs 

 with great ease and rapidity, but flies low and heavily. 

 According to Vieillot, this bird and its allies drink in 

 the same way as the pigeon. Its note resembles the 

 syllable pi, uttered in a sharp tone. 



FAMILY II. MEGAPODinXE. 



In the birds of this family, which are all inhabitants 

 of the islands of the Eastern archipelago and of Aus- 

 tralia, we find a considerable analogy with those which 

 have just been described, especially in the position of the 

 hind toe, which in these, as in the preceding birds, is 

 placed on the same level as the anterior toes, so that 

 its whole lower surface is applied to the ground in 

 walking. The Megapodiidse also have the legs naked 

 a little way above the heel or articulation of the tarsus 

 with the tibia, a character which likewise occurs in 

 some of the Cracida3. They have a stout arched bill, 

 with the tip rather obtuse ; their wings are rather 

 short and rounded, and their feet large and powerful, 

 indicating strictly terrestrial habits. The tarsi and 

 toes are covered with scales. 



The habits of these birds are most singular. They 

 deposit their eggs in a heap of sand, or an accumula- 

 tion of dead leaves, and trust to the heat of the sun, 

 assisted in the latter case by the warmth produced by 

 the decay of the vegetable matter, to maintain the 

 temperature necessary for the evolution of the young. 



THE MOUND-BIRD (Megapodius tumulus}, called 

 the Jungle-fowl by the Australian colonists, is an 

 inhabitant of the north coast of Australia, where it was 

 discovered by Mr. Gilbert in the vicinity of Port 

 Essington. It is of the size of an ordinary fowl, and 

 has the upper surface dark cinnamon-brown, with the 

 back of the neck dark gray, which is also the colour of 

 the lower surface of the body ; the head is furnished 

 with a rather short, pointed, occipital crest ; the upper 

 and lower tail-coverts are dark brown, and the tail 

 itself blackish ; the bill and feet are reddish. 



Mr. Gilbert was led to the discovery of this species 

 by observing at Port Essington numerous great mounds 

 of earth, which the colonists asserted to be ancient 

 tumuli of the natives. The latter, on the contrary, 

 assured him that these elevations were formed by 



the Jungle-fowl for the purpose of hatching its eggs; 

 an assertion which afterwards proved to be correct. 

 On another part of the shore of Port Essington, in the 

 midst of a thicket, he met with a mound of sand and 

 shells, of a conical form, measuring about twenty feet 

 in circumference at the base, and five feet in height, 

 and at the top of this he found a young bird in a hole 

 about two feet deep, lying on a few withered leaves. 

 The old birds appear to excavate from the top of the hill, 

 directing the course of their burrow obliquely, so that, 

 although the eggs may be at a considerable distance 

 from the summit, they are within two feet of the sur- 

 face. After the deposition of the egg the hole is lightly 

 filled up with the excavated materials, and the natives 

 can detect the existence of a new laid egg, by observing 

 the marks of the old bird's feet upon the top of the 

 mound, when they ascertain the direction of the hole 

 by pushing a stick down through the light earth. They 

 even state that they can determine the length of time 

 that has elapsed since the deposition of the egg, by the 

 greater or less degree of resistance presented to the 

 passage of the stick. The size of the mound is often 

 enormous; Mr. Gilbert mentions one fifteen feet in 

 height and sixty in circumference, which was entirely 

 composed of the richest light vegetable mould. On 

 extracting an egg from this mound, at a depth of five 

 feet, Mr. Gilbert found that the surrounding materials 

 felt quite warm to the hands, and as this, like all the 

 other mounds seen by him, was completely protected 

 from the rays of the sun by the thick trees surrounding 

 it, it is evident that the warmth required for hatching 

 the eggs must be produced in the interior of the mass 

 of materials. The mounds are found in various situa- 

 tions, and difier greatly in their form and the materials 

 of which they are composed ; but it is remarkable that 

 in some rocky situations they are found to consist of 

 the same vegetable mould as the one above mentioned, 

 from which Mr, Gilbert concludes that the birds must 

 collect all the dead leaves they can find, and that the 

 mounds must be the work of many birds, and accu- 

 mulated during a considerable period of time, in order 

 to allow the leaves to become converted into mould. 

 The natives assert that no more than one pair of birds 

 are ever seen upon a mound at the same time, and this is 

 in accordance with Mr. Gilbert's observations; they also 

 state that the eggs are laid at night, and always placed 

 perpendicularly, both of which statements Mr. Gilbert 

 believed to be true. 



FREYCINET'S MANKIRIO (Megapodius Freycineti) 

 Plate 20, fig. 75. The other species of the genus 

 Megapodius are inhabitants of the great group of 

 Asiatic islands, where they follow the same habits of 

 life as the Australian species just described. The pre- 

 sent species is met with in Banda, and in the Papuan 

 islands of Waigiou and Guebe, where it is common. 

 It is thirteen inches iri length, and of a black colour, 

 with the neck nearly naked, and the bill and feet ful- 

 vous, the former having the tip white. 



THE OCE1LATED LEIPOA (Leipoa ocellata}, called 

 the Native Pheasant by the Australian colonists, is a 

 large bird, measuring nearly two feet in length, and is 

 of a more graceful form than the Megapodius. It has 

 the top of the head furnished with a crest of slender 



