THE NATIVE PHEASANT. 599 



disregarding the narratives of these poor children of nature, because they happen to sound 

 extraordinary or different from anything with which they were previously acquainted." 



On one occasion, IVIr. Gilbert caught a young Jungle Fowl in a hole, about two feet 

 in depth, and the little creature, which appeared to be only a few days old, was lying 

 upon some dry leaves. It was a wild and intractable bird despite its tender age, and 

 though it was treated well and ate largely of the food with which it was supplied, it 

 continued to be restless and uneasy, and in two or three days contrived to escape. Even 

 at that age it possessed the earth-heaping propensities of its kind, and used to be 

 continually flinging about the sand which filled the box in which it was placed. 

 Although so small a bird, not larger than a young quail, it could grasp a quantity of 

 sand, and throw it from one end of the box to the other, without apparently exerting 

 itself, and was so constantly engaged in that occupation that it deprived its owner of 

 sleep durhig the few nights that it remained in his possession. 



The same patient and acute observer gives the following account of the general 

 habits of this species : — 



" The Jungle Fowl is almost exclusively confined to the dense thickets immediately 

 adjacent to the sea-beach ; it appears never to go far inland except along the banks of 

 creeks. It is always met with in pairs or quite solitary, and feeds on the ground ; its 

 food consisting of roots, which its powerful claws enable it to scratch up with the 

 utmost facility, and also of seeds, berries, and insects, particularly the larger kind 

 of coleoptera. 



It is at all times a very difficult bird to procure ; for although the rustling noise 

 produced by its stiff pinions when flying away be frequently heard, the bird itself is 

 seldom to be seen. Its flight is heavy and uns-ustained in the extreme. AMien first 

 disturbed, it invariably flies to a tree, and on alighting, stretches out its head and neck 

 in a straight line with its body, remaining in this position as stationary and motionless 

 as the branch upon which it is perched ; if, however, it becomes fairly alarmed, it takes 

 a horizontal but laborious flight for about a hundred yards, with its legs hanging down 

 as if broken. I did not myself detect any note or cry, but from the natives' description 

 and imitation of it, it much resembles the clucking of the domestic fowl, ending with 

 a scream like that of the peacock. 



I observed that the birds continued to lay from the latter part of August to March, 

 when I left that part of the country ; and, according to the testimony of the natives, 

 there is only an interval of about four or five months, the driest and the hottest part of 

 the year, between their season of incubation." 



The colouring of this bird is simple, but the tints are soft and pleasing. The head 

 is rich ruddy brown, the back of the neck blackish grey, and the back and wings 

 brownish cinnamon, deepening into dark chestnut on the tail-coverts. The whole of the 

 under surface is blackish grey. The legs are orange, and the bill rusty brown. 



The Leipoa or Native Pheasant of the colonists, so called on account of the pheasant- 

 like aspect of its head and neck, and the general outline of the body, is also an Australian 

 bird, inhabiting the north-western parts of that country, and the sandy plains of the 

 interior. 



Like the preceding species, it lays its eggs in a mound of earth and leaves, Init the 

 mound is not nearly so large, seldom exceednig three feet in height and eight or nine in 

 diameter, so that it bears some resemblance to a large ant-heap, a similitude which is 

 greatly strengthened by the large number of ants which are always found in the mounds, 

 and by the indiirated substance of its lower portion, which is sometimes so hard that the 

 eggs cannot be got at without the aid of a chisel. These nests are generally well hidden 

 away from observation, being placed in the driest and sandiest spots, in wliich a thick 

 dense bush grows so plentifully that a human being can hardly force his way through 

 them, though the bird is alile to traverse their intricacies with great celerity. 



The mound is composed of sand and soil, containing a mass of leaves and grass, in 

 the midst of which the eggs are laid, each egg being carefully placed separately from the 

 others. There are many eggs, often more than a dozen, and one of these mounds is quite a 



