1862.] LETTER FROM DR. G. BENNETT. 247 
is the case with the Mooruk among the natives of New Britain, I do 
not consider they can have become so scarce. We have not a single 
skin of this bird in the Australian Museum, The first time I sent for 
them the captain expected to call at the Navigators’ Islands, but did 
not do so. Just previous to receiving your letter I was attending a 
young man in the office of a merchant who owns vessels trading to 
the islands ; and as he is going for change of air as supercargo of a 
brig to visit the Samoan group about the end of August, I have 
furnished him with the description of the bird, and I will now give 
him your drawing. He will also procure me some Samoan Pigeons ; 
and I hope that the brig will return, and, if successful, in sufficient 
time to send all the birds to you by the next voyage of the ‘ La 
Hogue.’ 
“Tam happy to inform you that Mr. Hill has a pair of Brush- 
Turkeys (Talegalia), male and female, for Mr. A. Denison, for your 
Society. We have also a female; and as the Acclimatization Society 
have made arrangements with a collector (who proceeds next month 
to the northern districts) to procure for us several pairs of these 
birds to keep and breed, I will at the same time secure another pair 
in case of your requiring another male bird. I propose sending them 
to London in pairs, as most birds like society and are more likely to 
survive the voyage when in pairs. 
J will now give you some notes on birds which may be of interest 
to you. I have just received by Capt. M*Leod a rough-dried spe- 
cimen of a Megapodius, found abundantly over the New Hebrides 
and other groups of islands of the Southern Pacific. My specimen 
was procured from the island of Nua Fou, where it is named ‘ Mal- 
low’ by the natives. It accords with the description of M. freyci- 
neti. The bird measures 14 inches from the tip of the beak to the 
end of the tail ; the plumage is of an uniform blackish-brown colour, 
the mandibles, feet, and legs yellow. At Tanna they gave it the 
English name of ‘Bush Fowl;’ at Sandwich Island it was named 
Tarboosh. At the island of Nua Fou, Capt. M‘Leod says the bird 
lives in the scrubs in the centre of the island, about a large lagoon of 
brackish water, which has the appearance of an extinct crater; the 
birds lay their eggs on one side only of this lagoon, where the soil is 
composed of a sulphur-looking sand; the eggs are deposited from 1 
to 2 feet beneath the surface. The locality frequented by these 
birds is, at this island, under the protection of the king or chief, and 
by his permission only can the birds or eggs be procured. The num- 
ber of eggs deposited in the mounds varies, as the eggs are laid by dif- 
ferent birds in succession ; but as many as forty eggs are said to have 
been procured from one mound. At the other islands the birds visit 
the sandy beaches in retired localities near the sea about the months 
of September and October, and deposit their eggs in mounds of sand 
a short distance one from the other. Thus this bird has the habits 
of the Freshwater Tortoises, which scoop a pit in the sand near a river, 
deposit their eggs, and cover them up ; when hatched, the young force 
their way out of the sand, and, guided by their instinct, make for the 
river, Mr, Dawson, who procured living birds from the Island of 
