Mr. G. R. Gray on the Family Megapodide. 71 
screeching noise, while they lie concealed beneath the shady branches 
of the trees during the midday heat. Some have been observed to 
dust themselves on the sandy ground after the manner of gallina- 
ceous birds ; and they have been noticed to be apparently very pug- 
nacious at times, swiftly chasing each other along the ground, and 
calling to one another more loudly than usual, suddenly stopping, 
and then again running off in pursuit. 
Their food is entirely sought for on the ground ; it is obtained by 
scratching among and turning up the fallen débris beneath the trees 
and shrubs in the forests, &c., and consists of seeds, fallen fruits, 
insects, and small snails: but one species is thought to feed chiefly 
on fallen fruits resembling the cotyledons of leguminous seeds; and 
rice is also said to form a portion of its food. 
The species that form mounds for the purpose of incubation, 
usually select during the tropical spring a retired and shady place in 
the dense thickets or brush, occasionally surrounding the trunk of a 
tree by a portion of the materials employed in its formation, should 
it come within the prescribed limit of the mound. 
The mound is composed more or less of vegetable matter, which 
becomes decayed and rotten during the period that the birds are 
engaged in laying their eggs, which is thought to be an occupation 
of two or three mouths’ duration. The size of the mounds varies 
with the species ; some have been found reaching to 14 feet in height 
(24 feet from the base of the slepe to the summit) and 150 feet in 
circumference, and some are even larger. The materials required 
in their construction are collected by the birds by means of their 
large feet, either by carrying a small quantity at a time in one foot, 
or by scratching it together with their lengthened claws, and thus 
leaving the earth bare for some distance round the mound. The 
mound of some species (TJ'alegallus) is entirely composed of vegetable 
matter; others (Leipoa ocellata, Megapodius Macgillivrayi, Mega- 
podius tumulus), however, mix with the vegetable matter earth, 
sand, gravel, stones, and even, in some cases, fragments of corals ; 
in fact, the birds employ whatever falls in their way at the locality 
they have selected. The same pair frequent the mound year after 
year, destroying that of the former year on the renewal of the sea- 
son for laying; thus the vegetable portion of the centre becomes 
mixed with the sand and earth that formed the outer part of the 
former mound. The pair, on renewing the mound, first collect a new 
mass of vegetable débris for the centre, on which is scratched some of 
the former material to a certain height, leaving the centre somewhat 
hollow. It is in the middle, at various depths, from 18 inches to 
several feet, according to the habits of the different species, that 
the females of some species deposit their eggs, in the form of a circle 
( Talegallus, Letpoa), while others place them in an irregular manner 
in separate excavations in different parts of the mound. The eggs 
are deposited at about sunrise, one by one, at an interval of days be- 
tween each, reopening the centre on each egg being placed therein, 
and then covering it again, and returning each time to their usual 
haunts in the thickets, &c., until all the eggs intended to be laid are 
