ctA Mattingley, 2'Iiermomeier-Bird or Mallee-Fowl. [ist^'o'ci 



Being now essentially ground-frequenting birds, it is necessary 

 that they should be protected by an open jungle through which 

 they can readily run to avoid their enemies on the one hand, and on 

 the other where they can search for food unhampered by a dense 

 undergrowth. Nevertheless, the main reason why they frequent 

 the Mallee is that this type of growth is essential for the success- 

 ful incubation of their eggs, which they lay in their tumuli or 

 mounds. The Mallee scrub is open, and its narrow, lanceolate 

 leaves, set on the tops of this eucalypt's slender trunks, 

 which usually branch out from the root in separate stems to a 

 height of between 4 feet to 20 feet, averaging some 10 feet in 

 height, allow the sun's rays to penetrate and warm the mound, 

 thereby assisting the heat engendered by the fermenting vege- 

 table material with which the Lipoa surrounds its eggs, the 

 warmth of which is necessary to successfully hatch them out. 

 Years ago, before the country was opened up, the Mallec-Hens 

 existed within 35 miles to the west of the city of Melbourne, and 

 ranged through southern Australia as far north in New South 

 Wales as Wilcannia, lying between the 31st and 32nd deg. south 

 latitude, to which position also they have been found to reach in 

 South Australia, whilst they extend as far north as the tropical 

 Murchison River district in Western Australia, which lies between 

 the 26th and 28th parallels of latitude. Evidences of the exist- 

 ence of this bird have been found between Cue and Separation 

 Well in the great North-West Desert of Western Australia. One 

 of the reasons why they did not get so far north on the eastern 

 side of the continent as on the western is due to the south- 

 western half of Victoria being separated from the eastern half by 

 a wide, dissected volcanic plain, forming a natural barrier, whilst 

 the only available bridge leading from the western half to the 

 eastern half of Victoria is the main Dividing Range ; but as this 

 leads into country heavily timbered, and supporting a dense 

 forest growth inimical to the incubation of their eggs, the birds' 

 progress in that direction was also blocked. Although there are 

 suitable habitats for these birds to the north of the main Dividing 

 Range, especially along the River Murray, yet many plains 

 intervene and prevent dispersal in that direction. Whilst the 

 habitat of the Lipoa has such an extensive range in the Eyrean 

 region, yet the areas frequented by it do not impinge on those 

 inhabited by the other three Australian mound-builders forming 

 the family o{ Megapodiidce,-A.\\A which exist in more hiunid zones 

 situated in the Torresian region. If we seek for the main cause 

 that restricts the Mallee-Fowl to its present southern habitats, of 

 which the Mallee type of that country itself is the main strong- 

 hold, it will probably be found that originally this bird, when 

 not so highly specialized, and when in its more primitive state 

 of development, and not being so far removed from its reptilian 

 ancestors as we find it to-day, frequented the sands of the shores 



