THE MOUND BIRDS. 83 
turbed, while feeding, they usually fly to a tree, and are said, on alighting, 
to stretch out their head and neck in a straight line with the body, remain- 
ing in this position as stationary and motionless as the branch upon which 
they are perched. Some species deposit their eggs, to the number of a hun- 
dred or more, in the night, in holes on the sea-shore, which they excavate to 
the depth of three or four feet. Others deposit their eggs in immense con- 
ical mounds, composed of sand and shells, with a large mixture of black 
soil and vegetable matter, the base generally resting on the sandy beach, 
within a few feet of high-water mark: some of these mounds measure from 
twenty to sixty feet in circumference, and from five to fifteen in height. 
After the female has deposited an ege, which is effected in the night, at in- 
tervals of several days, and is placed perpendicularly in a hole, near the 
middle of the mound, to the depth of several feet, she scatters a quantity 
of sand in the hole until the cavity is filled up. The young are supposed 
by some to effect their escape from the mound unaided; while, on the other 
hand, it has been considered that the parent birds, knowing when the young 
are ready to emerge from their confinement, scratch down, and release them. 
Another writer says of these birds, — 
“The Megapodide are a small family of birds found only in Australia 
and the surrounding islands, but extending as far as the Philippines and 
north-west Borneo. They are allied to the gallinaceous birds, but differ 
from these and all others in never sitting upon their eggs, which they bury 
in sand, earth, or rubbish, and leave to be hatched by the heat of the sun 
or fermentation. They are all characterized by very large feet, and long, 
curved claws, and most of the species of Megapedius rake and scratch 
together all kinds of rubbish, dead leaves, sticks, stones, earth, rotten wood, 
&e., till they form a large mound, often six feet hich and twelve feet across, 
in the middle of which they bury their eggs. The natives can tell by the 
condition of these mounds whether they contain eggs or not; and they rob 
them, whenever they can, as the brick-red eggs (as large as those of a swan) 
are considered a great delicacy. A number of birds are said to join in 
making these mounds, and lay their eggs together, so that sometimes forty 
or fifty may be found. The mounds are to be met with here and there in 
dense thickets, and are great puzzles to strangers, who cannot understand 
who can possibly have heaped together cart-loads of rubbish in such out-of- 
the-way places ; and when they inquire of the natives, they are but little 
wiser, for it almost always appears to them the wildest romance to be told 
that it was done by birds. The species found in Bombock is about the 
size of a small hen, and entirely of dark olive and brown tints. It is a 
miscellaneous feeder, devouring fallen fruits, earth-worms, snails, and cen- 
tipedes, but the flesh is white and well-flavored when properly cooked.” 
