GAME-BIRDS 



261 





New Guinea. The great peculiarity about these big birds is that, in place of 

 brooding their eggs, they deposit them in huge heaps of leaves and other 

 vegetable matter scraped together by their own powerful feet, where they are 

 left to hatch by means of the heat produced by decomposition and fermenta- 

 tion. The cocks, which take the larger share in piling up these heaps, remain in 

 the neighbourhood to watch over the eggs, and from time to time regulate the 

 temperature of the mass by removing or replacing the leaves, after which 

 they assist the chicks in freeing themselves from the shells of the eggs. For 

 the first few nights of their existence the chicks are replaced by the cocks in 

 the mounds, but in a short time they become more fully fledged, and are then 

 able to shift for themselves. One member of the group, the Australian brush- 

 turkey Gatlteturus >• 

 lathami), will breed 

 freely in captivity, if 

 allowed suitable con- 

 ditions. Megapodes are 

 represented by one 

 species in the Nicobars 

 and a second in the 

 Tessimber Islands, by 

 others in the Philip- 

 pines, Celebes, and other 

 Malay islands, and by 

 yet others in the 

 Molucca, Louisiade, 

 Kangeang, Kei, Aru, 

 New Hebrides, Mari- 

 anne, and other groups. 

 In addition to these 

 are the Papuan species, 

 among which the true 

 brush-turkeys are 

 numerously represented. 

 The only species, in addition to the one already mentioned, peculiar to the Australian 

 mainland is the so-called mallee-fowl (Lipoa ocellata), of Western and South 

 Australia, which is of the approximate size of a pheasant, with white cross-bars 

 on the back and wings, and a white-tipped black tail. According to a recent 

 observer, mallee-fowls do not begin to lay until two years old, and during the first 

 half of the breeding-season the eggs are laid regularly every third or fourth day, 

 after which the intervals between the deposition of the eggs increase according to 

 the disposition of the individual birds and the amount of food available. Hot and 

 dry seasons have a noticeable effect on these birds, which under such conditions 

 lay fewer eggs than usual. Laying usually commences early in September, but 

 may be deferred until December is well advanced, and the total number of eggs 

 laid by the individual hens in a season varies from one to a score. The eggs 

 have unpolished shells of a delicate salmon-pink or pinkish red colour when first 



Latham's brush-turkey. 



