THE BRUSH TURKEY. 251 



appears of the bird in front, except its head and neck ; but this would 

 not be the case, were those long feathers fixed only on the rump. By 

 a strong muscular vibration, these birds can make the shafts of their 

 long feathers clatter together like the swords of a sword-dancer. 



Peacocks are found wild in Asia and Africa : but the largest ami 

 finest of these birds are seen in the neighborhood of the Ganges, an J 

 in the fervid plains of India. They are mentioned in the Saorea 

 Writings, where they are enumerated as constituting part of the oar 

 goes of the fleet which imported the treasures of the East to the sourt 

 of Solomon. 



Thes3 birds were highly esteemed by the Romans. Pliny states, 

 that the first Roman who ordered Peacocks to be served up at hia 

 table, was Hortensius, in a grand entertainment which he gave when 

 he was consecrated high priest. Marcus Aufidius Lurco was the first 

 who attempted to fatten these birds in a manner which was peculiar 

 to himself, and by which he is said to have derived an annual income 

 of more than sixty thousand sesterces. 



The females lay only a few eggs at a time, and these at a distance 

 of usually three or four days from each other. When they are at 

 liberty and act from natural instinct, they always deposit their eggs 

 in some sequestered or secret place. These are white and spotted, 

 like the eggs of the Turkey. The incubation occupies from twenty- 

 seven to thirty days,- according to the temperature of the climate and 

 of the season. 



As Peacocks, in this country, are not able to fly well, they climb 

 from branch to branch, to the tops of the highest trees. From these 

 and from the roofs of nouses, it is, that they usually make their harsh 

 and very peculiar cry. In this cry, one note is deep and the other 

 sharp, the latter exactly an octave above the former ; and both hav 

 somewhat of the piercing sound of a trumpet. 



The females of this species, like those of the Pheasant, have some 

 times been known to assume the plumes of the male. Lady Tynte 

 had a favorite pied Peahen, which eight times produced chicks 

 Having moulted when about eleven years old, the lady and her family 

 were astonished to see her display the feathers that are peculiar to 

 the other sex, and appear like a pied Peacock. In the following 

 year she moulted again, and produced similar feathers. In the third 

 year she did the same, and then had also spurs resembling those of 

 the cock. The hen never bred after this change of her plumage 



THE BRUSH TURKEY. 



The Megapodidas, deriving their name from the enormous size of 

 their feet, are inhabitants of Australia and the Papuan Islands. In 

 the habits of these birds there is a peculiarity hardly less singular 

 than surprising. Instead of hatching their eggs by the warmth of 

 the body, as most other birds do, not excepting the Ostrich, the Meg 

 apodes bary their eggs in a decaying heap of grass and leaves, trust- 

 ing to the heat furnished by the fermentation to hatch the eggs. 



Brush Turkey is principally found in the thick brushwood of 



