o?i the Australian Brush- Turkey . 163


her outside, up the tree. We found 011 visiting the mound that

there was an open trench on the top, say two feet by one foot, by

one foot deep, evidently to admit the hen for laying, and the work

of the male alone which is interesting. The heat of the interior of

the mound at this time was very perceptible to the hand, though

I regret that I did not test it with the thermometer. (Von.

Rosenberg found that the thermometer marked 93 deg. Falir. in

the interior of the mound of another species of Brush-Turkey,

Talegallus fuscirostris, while the surrounding atmosphere was

only 85 in the shade. Workers of incubators will recollect

that the temperature required to hatch the egg of the domestic

fowl is 104 deg. Fahr.)


And now the female began to moult and the chance of

eggs for the season passed away. It seems highly 3 " improbable

that in such a miserable summer any chicks could have survived,

even if the mound retained its heat sufficiently long for the

incubation period. At the Zoological Gardens last summer a

young bird, I learn from Mr. Thomson, did leave a mound, but

did not live long. But some forty years ago chicks were reared

in Regent’s Park. They looked after themselves directly they

left the mound, the parents taking not the slightest notice of

them. They could fly at once, and went up to roost at night,

and grew so rapidly that in three months there was very little

difference between the old and young birds.


My birds are in fine order now, and the male already

seems inclined to go to work, but I hope that breeding operations

may be deferred till the end of April at earliest; so until that

time I shall supply no material.


I hear that our fellow member, Mr. Capern, has more

nearly approached success, for eggs were found in a heap raised

by his birds ; but probably the low temperature of the season

accounted for their failing to hatch.


With regard to the food for young birds, Gilbert found

that a newly hatched chick of Duperrey’s Megapode fed at once

on bruised Indian corn. I should offer custard, ants’ eggs,

soaked seeds and grain of various sorts, and raisins and any

available fruit, also small earthworms.



