REMARKABLE EGGS 179 



lays them. Those of the species found in what I call the 

 Swan River district, though the bird is no bigger than a 

 small hen, are about three inches and a quarter in length 

 and seven inches in circumference ; and this great size is 

 another bit of evidence against the number of eggs laid by 

 one bird being very large. The colour of the eggs of all 

 the species is pure white ; but they are encrusted with a 

 thin layer of a chalky matter similar to that found on 

 the eggs of some other families of birds widely removed 

 from the present ; and this layer often becomes tinged 

 with colour derived from the weeds and earth with which 

 the nest-mound is built. 



The eggs are eagerly sought after by both natives and 

 colonists for food ; and this is a potent cause of the 

 destruction of the birds. I have seen natives bring a 

 hundred of these eggs at a time to a township or a 

 settler's wife, receiving in return a quantity of necessaries 

 that made him in his own eyes and those of his com- 

 panions a rich man. The blacks are always sure of a 

 good market for these eggs, and the wonder is that the 

 birds are not already exterminated, seeing that it is 

 impossible for them to hide their remarkable nests from 

 the all-seeing and all-finding instincts of the aborigine. 



The habits, in some respects, of the various species of 

 megapodes vary. Some are more gregarious than others. 

 The species found in the extreme north-west goes in 

 much smaller parties than that found by us in this district 

 Here the bird is found in scattered flocks, which rarely 

 collect close together. As many as a dozen may be seen 

 on one tree, or near one nest ; but possibly there are forty 

 or fifty in the neighbourhood. An odd pair or two, or a 

 single bird, may often be met with. In the north it is 

 seldom that more than seven or eight birds are found 

 together, and pairs are the rule. It seems that each pair 

 keeps to a selected spot of no great extent, and seldom 

 wanders far from it. The fact that many nests are found 

 grouped together is of no significance, many of the nests 

 being old and disused. One or more hens frequent the 

 same mound year after year, until it becomes too large 



