T. P. Bellchambers—The Mallee Fowl of Australia 23


We will suppose that two months have expired. The mound now

contains nine eggs and a chick which broke its shell at noon yesterday.

That it is near the surface we know by that slight depression. Its

shoulders are upward, and with them it is boring through the loose

sandy covering, ever pressing the falling sand under its feet. Its head

is bent down along its breast; its nostrils protected by a shield of

bristles. There is a heaving motion with falling sand in the depression.

Another heave and a little head shoots into view, and a staggering chick

drops back into the hollow from which it has emerged. Its eyes are

closed ; it is perfectly still, resting after its subterranean journey,

which had lasted for twenty hours. It is 8 a.m., and the shadows of

the nearby mallee are just leaving the mound. The long journey

upward seems to be always made in the night. I have never known a

chick emerge during the heat of the day. They would surely perish

in the attempt, let alone clashing with the male’s duty of testing the

sun’s heat. Always they come in the cooler, quieter hours of early

morn. The chick lifts its head and takes its first long look around.

Then with a staggering run it disappears into the bushes.


A Bronzewing Pigeon barely alights on the mound, when from

an adjacent bush the cock Mallee rushes forth, crest up, plumage ruffled,

wings open, and dashes at the sacrilegious intruder. There is a sharp

clap clap of wings, and the pigeon is gone. Then comes a softly uttered

warning from the bushes, and with one eye turned skyward the cock

gently lowers his body to earth. There he lies perfectly motionless,

his colours blending perfectly with the leaf-scattered soil. See ! just

a dark speck high in the blue ; it is a Wedge-tailed Eagle. Unwinking,

the eye of the Mallee follows the moving speck right into the glare of the

sun ; not a movement until that monster of the skies has passed from

view, then, with a softly uttered who-how, he again ascends the mound.

The female comes forth from her hiding and proceeds to scratch around

the base of that structure, intent on a beetle-hunt among the loose

debris and coarser material there scattered. Meanwhile the male is

busy opening the mound. The chick we saw run into the bushes has

already taken up the burden of life. Should we give him a fright he

will rise and fly a full hundred yards and again hide in a bush.

Independent and capable, he quickly acquires the wisdom of the bush



