STRANGE HABITS OF BRUSH-TURKEY 177 



number of eggs found in a mound differs very remarkably, 

 and can only be accounted for by another fact, which is 

 often disputed, viz., that several birds lay in the same 

 mound. I am convinced that this is the case, although 

 I have not been able to verify it. The number of eggs 

 laid by each bird I believe to be very small, but they lay 

 for quite eight months in each year — the species now 

 under description from the latter part of July to March, 

 but the time varies a little with the locality. I have 

 generally found eight or ten eggs in a nest, but sometimes 

 there are five or six times that number. I once took 

 sixty-five from a large mound, and it is obvious that one 

 bird could not lay so many ; besides, there is a long 

 interval between the laying of each egg, I believe about 

 twenty days. Consequently in the breeding season there 

 are always both young and eggs in the mound, and the 

 reason that this is not more generally observed by 

 naturalists is because the young make their escape when 

 the mound is approached. If the observer wishes to see 

 them he must advance very cautiously. 



There is always much more earth and sand than 

 vegetable matter in the composition of a mound, which 

 should be called a nest, for such it really is ; and these 

 nests are a remarkable instance of natural mimicry, for 

 they so well resemble ant-hills that they have often been 

 mistaken for the habitations of those industrious insects, 

 especially as ants generally abound on and about them — 

 a remarkable natural provision for the young birds, which 

 feed on them. Much of the vegetable matter used in the 

 construction of the nests takes fresh root in the mound, 

 and seeds germinate, so that there is usually much living 

 herbage at the base of the nests, and some of them are 

 quite concealed by growing plants. Sometimes, too, the 

 nest is placed round the roots of a tree so that the trunk 

 seems to be growing from the centre of it. 



Much further to the north, in the Port Darwin district, 

 there is another species, well marked by its prominent 

 pointed crest (Megapodius tumulus), which uses sand and 

 earth (a kind of loam often found in the sandy districts of 



M 



