TBS BRUSH TURKEY. 461 



informed, both by natives and settlers living near their haunts, that it is not an unusual 

 event to obtain nearly a bushel of eggs at one time from a single heap ; and as they are deli- 

 cious eating, they are eagerly sought after. 



" Some of the natives state that the females are constantly in the neighborhood of the 

 heap about the time the young are likely to be hatched, and frequently uncover and cover 

 them up again, apparently for the purpose of assisting those that may have appeared ; while 

 others have informed me that the eggs are merely deposited and the young allowed to force 

 . their way unassisted. In all probability, as Nature has adopted this mode of reproduction, she 

 has also furnished the tender birds with the power of sustaining themselves from the earliest 

 period ; and the great size of the egg would equally lead to this conclusion, since in so large a 

 space it is reasonable to suppose that the bird would be much more developed than is usually 

 found in eggs of smaller dimensions. In further confirmation of this point, I may add that in 

 searching for eggs in one of the mounds, I discovered the remains of a young bird, apparently 

 just excluded from the shell, and which was clothed with feathers, not with down, as is 

 usually the case." 



Mr. P. L. Sclater has given the following most valuable account of the habits of this bird 

 in a state of captivity : — 



" The singular phenomenon of the mound-raising faculty of the Tallegalla, which had been 

 well ascertained in Australia by Mr. Gould, has been annually displayed in the bird's state of 

 captivity. 



"On being removed into an inclosure, with an abundance of vegetable material within 

 reach, the male begins to throw it up into a heap behind him, by a scratching kind of motion 

 of his powerful feet, which project each footful as he grasps it for a considerable distance in 

 the rear. As he always begins to work at the outer margin of the inclosure, the material 

 is thrown inwards in concentric circles, until sufficiently near the spot selected for the mound 

 to be jerked upon it. As soon as the mound is risen to a height of about four feet, both birds 

 work in reducing it to an even surface, and then begin to excavate a depression in the centre. 

 In this, in due time, the eggs are deposited as they are laid, and arranged in a circle, aboiit 

 fifteen inches below the summit of the mound, at regular intervals, with the smaller end of the 

 egg pointing downwards. The male bird watches the temperature of the mound very carefully ; 

 the eggs are generally covered, a cylindrical opening being always maintained in the centre of 

 the circle for the purpose of giving air to them, and probably to prevent the danger of a sudden 

 increase of heat from the action of the sun or accelerated fermentation in the mound itself. In 

 hot days the eggs are nearly uncovered two or three times between morning and evening. 



"On the young bird chipping out of the egg, it remains in the mound for at least twelve 

 hours without making any effort to emerge from it, being at that time almost as deeply covered 

 up by the male as the rest of the eggs. 



" On the second day it comes out, with each of its wdng-feathers well developed in a 

 sheath which soon bursts, but apparently without inclination to use them, its powerful feet 

 giving it ample means of locomotion at once. Early in the afternoon, the young bird retires 

 to the mound again, and is partially covered up for the night by the assiduous father, but at 

 a diminished depth as compared with the circle of eggs from which it emerged in the morning. 

 On the third day, the nestling is capable of strong flight, and on one occasion one of them, 

 being accidentally alarmed, actually forced itself, while on the wing, through the strong- 

 netting which covered the inclosure. The accounts of the habits of the Tallegalla, given by 

 Mr. Gould in his Birds of Australia, in 1842, strange as it appeared at the time, are thus 

 perfectly verified in every respect." 



The general color of the adult male Tallegalla is blackish-brown above, and the same on the 

 under surface with a silver gray gloss produced by the gray tips of the back feathers. The 

 cheeks are naked, the head and neck covered with short hair-like feathers of a dark blackish 

 hue, and the front of the neck is furnished with a large naked fleshy wattle, something like 

 that of a turkey, and being of a bright yellow wanning into orange-red at its junction with the 

 neck. The bill is black ; the eyes brown chestnut, and the legs and feet dark brown. The 

 male bird is about the size of an ordinary turkey, and the female is about one-fourth less. 



