42 The Zoologist— February, 1866. 



Nothing can be more gratifying to the working ornithologist than to 

 have those various portions of the earth's surface thus physically sur- 

 veyed, and how delightful will it prove in the hereafter, when Nestor, 

 Droiuaius, Apteryx and other genera have followed in the track of 

 Ji^pyornis, Palapleryx, Dinoruis and Didus, as they assuredly will 

 follow, to have their portraits and their characters faithfully preserved 

 in a manner as defiant of time as the pyramids of Egypt themselves. 



In my former notice I confined my extracts to the general ob- 

 servations in Mr. Gould's Introduction, but now it seems desirable 

 to enter more fully into detail, and to select certain species with a view 

 to exhibit clearly the comprehensive plan on which Mr. Gould has 

 conducted and completed his investigations : the examples 1 select 

 are the wattled Talegallus, the ocellated Leipoa, and the Australian 

 Megapodius, and although there is no great novelty in the details of 

 economy now reprinted, 1 think it is the first instance in which they 

 have been brought together side by side, so that the differences may 

 be readily noticed and contrasted. 



Wattled Tulegnllus (Talegallus Lathami). — "It has often been 

 asserted that Australia abouuds in anomalies, and in no instance is 

 the truth of this assertion more fully exemplified than in the history 

 of this very singular bird, respecting the situation of which in the 

 natural system much diversity of oj)inion, as above noticed, has 

 hitherto prevailed. It was consequently one of the birds which de- 

 manded my utmost attention during n)y visit to Australia; and, im- 

 mediately upon its remarkable habits becoming known to me, I 

 published an account of them in the first volume of the ' Tasmanian 

 Journal' for 1840. The remarks therein contained, and which are 

 recapitulated below, comprise all that is known respecting them, 

 nothhig of importance having since been discovered. 



" The most remarkable circumstance connected with the economy 

 of this species is the fact of its eggs not being incubated in the 

 manner of birds. At the conmiencement of the spring the wattled 

 Talegallus scratches together an immense heap of decaying vegetable 

 matter as a depository for the eggs, and trusts to the heat engendered 

 by the process of fermentation for the development of the young. The 

 heap employed for this purj)ose is collected by the birds during several 

 weeks previous to the period of laying; it varies in size from two to 

 many cart-loads, and in most instances is of a pyramidal form. The 

 construction of the mouud is either the work of one pair of birds, or, 



