GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 267 



neighbourhood of the mound about the time the young are hkely 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. One point has been clearly ascertained, namely, that the young, from the hour that they 

 are hatched, are clothed with feathers, and have their wings sufficiently developed to enable them to 

 fly on to the branches of trees, should they need to do so to escape from danger. They are equally 

 nimble on their legs ; in fact, as a moth emerges from a chrysalis, dries its -wings, and flies away, so the 

 youthful Tallegallus, when it leaves the egg, is sufficiently perfect to be able to act independently and 

 procure its own food. 



"Although, unfortunately," continues Mr. Gould, " I was almost too late for the breeding season, 

 I nevertheless saw several of these hatching mounds, both in the interior of New South Wales and at 

 Illawarra. In every instance they were placed in the most retired and shady glens and on the slope 

 of a hill, the part above the mound being scratched clean, while all below remained untouched, as if 

 the birds had found it more easy to convey the materials down than to tlirow them up. The eggs are 

 perfectly white, of a long oval form, three inches and three-quarters long, by two inches and a half in 

 diameter." 



In the Gardens of the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park, several old birds have constructed 

 mounds, in which they deposited eggs, and their young have become developed. 



"In the year 1854," says Mr. Sclater, "the singular phenomenon of the mound-raising faculty of 

 the Tallegallus, which had been well ascertained in Australia by Mr. Gould, was effectually displayed 

 by a pair of birds. 



" On being removed into a sufficiently large enclosure, with an abundance of vegetable material 

 within reach, the male began at once to throw it up into a lieap behind him, by a scratching motion 

 of his powerful feet, which projected each footful as he grasped it for a considerable distance in the 

 rear. As he always began to work at the outer margin of the enclosure, the material was thrown 

 inwards in concentric circles until it sufficiently neared the spot selected for the mound to be jerked 

 upon it. As soon as the mound had risen to a height of about four feet, both birds worked in 

 reducing it to an even surface, and then began to excavate a depression in the centre. In this in 

 due time the eggs were placed, as they were laid, and arranged in a circle about fifteen inches below 

 the summit of the mound, at regular intervals, with the smaller end of the egg pointing downwards. 

 The male bird watclied the temperature of the mound very carefully ; the eggs were 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 were nearly 

 uncovered two or three times between morning and evening. In about a month after the first egg 

 was supposed to have been laid a young bird was hatched, and is still living with its parents. 

 Subsequent observation enables us to state that on the young bird chipping out of the egg, it remains 

 in the mound for at least twelve hours, without making any eftbrt to emerge from it, being at that 

 time almost as deeply covered up as the rest of the eggs. On the second day it comes out with each 

 of its wing-feathers well developed in a sheath which soon bursts, but apparently it has no inclination 

 to use them, its powerful feet at once giving it ample means of locomotion. 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 flight, and one of them accidentally forced 

 its way through the strong netting which covered the enclosure." 



In its native woods this species lives in small companies like other GuIUiiiZ, and while on the 



