CLIFF-DWELLERS 33 



inches in diameter, is scratched in the ground to a 

 depth of seven or eight inches, and filled with dead 

 leaves, dead grass, and similar materials, and a 

 large mass of the same substance is placed all 

 around it upon the ground. Over this first layer 

 a large mound of sand, mixed with dry grass, etc., 

 is thrown, and finally the whole assumes the form 

 of a dome. . . . When an egg is to be deposited, 

 the top is laid open and a hole scraped in its cen- 

 tre to within two or three inches of the bottom layer 

 of leaves. The egg is placed in the sand just at 

 or near the edge, in a vertical position, with the 

 smaller end downwards. The sand is then thrown 

 in again, and the mound left in its original form. 

 The egg which has been thus deposited is there- 

 fore completely surrounded and enveloped in soft 

 sand, having from four to six inches of sand be- 

 tween the lower end of the egg and the layer of 

 dead leaves. When a second egg is laid, it is de- 

 posited precisely in the same plane as the first, but 

 at the opposite side of the hole before alluded to. 

 A third egg is placed in the same plane as the 

 others, but, as it were, at the third corner of the 

 square . . the fourth in the fourth . . . the fig- 



o 

 ure being of this form — o o; the next four eggs 



o 



