GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. 27 1 



upon a second, rather larger, of the same external form and appearance ; it contained three eggs. 

 Although we saw seven or eight more mounds, only these two contained eggs : we were too early; 

 a week later and we should doubtless have found many more. To give you an idea of the place these 

 birds choose for their remarkable mode of rearing their young, I will describe it as nearly as I can. 



"The Wongan Hills are about 1,300 feet above the level of the sea, in a north-north-east direction 

 from Drummond's House in the Toodyay. Their sides are thickly clothed with a dense forest of 

 Eucalypti, and at their base is a thicket, extending for several miles, of upright-gromng and thick 

 bushy plants, so high in most parts that we could not see over their tops, and so dense that if we only 

 separated for a few yards we were obliged to 'cooey' to prevent our straying from each other. This 

 thicket is again shadowed by a very curious species of dwarf Eucalyptus, bearing yellow blossoms, and 

 growing from fifteen to thirty feet in height, known to the natives as the spear-wood, and of which 

 they make their spears, digging-sticks, dowaks, &c. The whole formation is a fine reddish iron-stone 

 gravel, and this the Leipoa scratches up for several yards around, and thus forms its mound, to be 

 aftersvards converted into a hotbed for the reproduction of its ofispring. The interior of the mound 

 is composed of the finer particles of the gravel, mixed with vegetable matter, the fermentation of which 

 produces a warmth sufficient for the purpose of hatching. Mr. Drummond, who had been for years 

 accustomed to hotbeds in England, gave it as his opinion that the heat around the eggs was about Sg"*. 

 In both the nests with eggs the White Ant was very numerous, making its little covered galleries of 

 earth around and attached to the shell, thus showing a beautiful provision of Nature in preparing the 

 necessary tender food for the young bird on its emergence. One of the eggs I have preserved shows 

 the White Ant's tracks most beautifully. The largest mound I saw, and which appeared as if in a 

 state of preparation for eggs, measured forty-five feet in circumference, and, if round in proportion on 

 the top, would have been fully five feet in height. I remarked that in all the mounds not ready for 

 the reception of eggs the inside or vegetable portion was always wet and cold ; and I imagine from the 

 state of the others that the bird turns out the whole of the materials to dry before depositing its eggs 

 and covering them up with the soil. In both cases where I found eggs, the upper part of tlie mound 

 was perfectly and smoothly rounded over, so that any one passing it without knowing the singular habit 

 of the bird might very readily suppose it to be an ant-hill. Mounds in this state always contain eggs 

 ■within, while those without eggs are not only not rounded over, but have the centres so scooped out 

 that they form a hollow. The eggs are laid directly in the centre, all at the same depth, separated only 

 by about three inches of earth, and so placed as to form a circle. I regret we were so early. Had we 

 been a week later, the probability is I should have found the circle of eggs complete. Is it not singular 

 that all the eggs were equally fresh, as if their development was arrested until the full number were 

 deposited, so that the young might all appear at the same time ? No one considering the immense 

 size of the egg can suppose for a moment the bird capable of laying more than one without at least the 

 intermission of a day, and perhaps even more. Like those of the Megapodius, they are covered with 

 an epidermis-like coating, and are certainly as large, being three inches and three-quarters in length by 

 two and a half in breadth. They vary in colour from a very light brown to a light salmon. During the 

 whole day we did not succeed in obtaining sight of the bird, although we saw numerous tracks of its 

 feet, and many places where it had been scratching. We also saw its tracks on the sand when 

 crossing the dried beds of the swamps at least two miles from the breeding thicket, which proves that 

 the bird in procuring its food does not confine itself to the bushes around its nest, but merely resorts 

 to them for the purpose of incubating. The native informed us that the only chance of procuring die 

 bird was by stationing ourselves in sight of the mound at a little distance, and remaining quiet and 

 immovable till it made its appearance at sundown. This I attempted, and, with the native, encamped 

 within tv,'enty yards of the mound about an hour before sunset, taking precautions to conceal ourselves 



