282 Stray Feathers. [,sf April 



shady and obscure places, and are used by several birds in 

 community. Occasionally single birds will in an outburst of 

 superfluous energy, construct the foundations of a mound in quite 

 an unlikely locality. Several such ill-considered enterprises have 

 been undertaken in this locality. One which was noticed a few days 

 ago is singular. The bird has selected a very old mound, 

 orginally in the jungle, but which has been exposed on the edge of 

 a clearing for the last fifteen years. The apex of this mound, which 

 time and ballistic rains have converted into solid loam, has been 

 excavated, and rubbish from the jungle is being daily heaped up, 

 the tracks along which the stuff is kicked being as well defined as a 

 garden path. 



One of the enemies of the Scrub-Fowl is the Grey Goshawk, but 

 since (in the interests of domestic poultry) that bold and rapacious 

 bird is driven off as soon as the Spangled Drongo fussily proclaims 

 its hateful presence, the Scrub-Fowls of the jungle have ventured 

 on to the sandy flat, where there is a fair amount of shade, and 

 being reluctant to fly back to the jungle when in the egg-laying 

 mood, meet Nature half-way. Digging is easy in the -sand, and in 

 the spots favoured by the birds are many shallow pits, which they 

 have excavated in search of food. The addition of a few leaves 

 converts the pit into an ideal nesting-place, in which the egg is laid. 

 The blacks know the nest of the solitary Scrub-Fowl by the name 

 of " boon-nun-gun." Often the "boon-nun-gun" is merely a pit 

 6 or 8 inches deep; and the e^g, having been covered with 

 leaves, is left to Providence's care. The blacks readily detect the 

 " boon-nun-gun," and, exercising the prerogative of Providence, 

 appropriate the big pink egg. On occasions the " boon-nun-gun " 

 is really the beginning of a mound, and the bird may give a 

 demonstration sometimes of the way in which the heaps of earth, 

 sand, and vegetable matter accumulated. The material is 

 scratched into three or four converging ramps, which are gradually 

 worked to a common centre. Usually the structure of the ramps 

 is anything but true, while I have seen them so regular in spacing 

 and height that they would have done credit to a man with a rake. 

 Though much apparent labour is required in the building of these 

 ramps in the forest country, the superstructure is never, in my 

 experience, completed. The birds sooner or later submit to the 

 preconceptions of the species for the dimness and seclusion of the 

 jungle, and repair thither for the formal fulfilment of Nature's 

 decree. There can be little doubt that occasionally the egg 

 deposited in a "boon-nun-gun" is hatched, in which event the 

 chick would have just as good a start in life as if its cradle had 

 been in the deep shade. 



The laying of superfluous eggs is not strictly confined to the 

 industrious and thoughtful Scrub-Fowl. Darwin mentions the 

 single and scattered eggs of Ostriches * at Bahia Blanca, South 

 America, which, he says, are never hatched out, and which are 



* ? Rheas. — Eds. 



