The Zoologist — February, 1866. ■ 45 



almost running over it before seeing it. So anxious was I to see the 

 hidden treasures vvitliin, that in my haste I threw aside the black 

 fellow and began scraping off the upper part of the mound ; this did 

 not at all please him, and he became very indignant, at the same time 

 making me understand that as I had never seen this nest before I had 

 better trust to him to get out the eggs, or I should, in my haste and im- 

 patience, certainly break them. I therefore let him have his own way, 

 and he began scraping off the earth very carefully from the centre, 

 throwing it over the side, so that the mound very soon presented the 

 appearance of a huge basin ; about two feet in depth of earth was in 

 this way thrown off, when the large ends of two eggs met my anxious 

 gaze; both these eggs were resting on their smaller apex, and the 

 earth round them had to be very carefully removed to avoid breaking 

 the shell, which is extremely fragile when first exposed to the atmo- 

 sphere. About a hundred yards from this first mound we came upon 

 a second, rather larger, of the same external form and appearance; it 

 contained three eggs. Although we saw seven or eight more mounds, 

 only these two contained eggs : we were too early ; a week later, and 

 we .should doubtless have found many more. To give jou an idea of 

 the place these birds choose for their remarkable mode of rearing their 

 young, I will describe it as nearly as I can: — The Wonga Hills are 

 about thirteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, in a north-north- 

 east direction from Drummond's House in the Toodyay : their sides 

 are thickly clothed with a dense forest of Eucalypti, and at their base 

 is a thicket, extending for several miles, of upright-growing and thick 

 bushy plants, so high in most parts that we could not see over their 

 tops, and so dense that, if we separated only for a few yards, we were 

 obliged to cooey, to prevent our straying from each other; this thicket 

 is again shadowed by a very curious species of dwarf Eucalyptus 

 bearing yellow blossoms, and growing from fifteen to thirty feet in 

 height, known to the natives as the spear-vvood, and of which they 

 make their spears, digging-sticks, dowaks, &c. ; the whole formation is 

 a fine reddish ironstone-gravel, and this the Leipoa scratches up from 

 several yards around, and thus forms its mound, to be afterwards con- 

 verted into a hot-bed for the reproduction of its offspring. The inte- 

 rior of the mound is composed of the finer particles of the gravel, 

 mixed with vegetable matter, the fermentation of which produces a 

 warmth sufficient lor the purpose of hatching. Mr. Drummond, who 

 had been for years accustomed to hot-beds in England, gave it as his 

 opinion that the heat around the eggs was about 89*. In both the 



