2/2 CASSELL'S book OF BIRDS. 



well with bushes from the quick eye of the bird, but leaving just an opening to get a fair sight with 

 my gun. In a half sitting, half-crouching position, I thus remained in breathless anxiety for the 

 approach of the bird I had so long wished to see, not daring to move a muscle for fear of stirring a 

 branch or making a noise by crushing a dead leaf, till I was so cramped that I could scarcely bear the 

 pain in my limbs. The bird did not, however, make its appearance, and the native, with the fear of 

 wading through the thicket in the darkness (for there was no moon), became so impatient that he 

 started up and began to talk so loud and make so much noise that I was compelled to give up all 

 hopes of seeing the bird tliat night. However, just as we were passing the mound we started the bird 

 from the opposite side, but, from the denseness of the thicket and the darkness closing round us, I 

 had no chance of getting a shot at it." 



Sir George Grey completes the account given by Gilbert. He says, " I have lately returned from 

 the Murray, where I have been studying the habits and manners of the Leipoa ocdlata, which is very 

 plentiful in the sandy districts of the scrub. Its food consists chiefly of insects, such as Phasmidcc 

 and a species of Citncx. It also feeds on the seeds of various shrubs. It possesses the power of 

 running with extraordinary rapidity ; it roosts at night on trees, and never flies if it can avoid so doing. 



" The mounds it constructs are from twelve to thirteen yards in circumference at the base, and 

 from two to three feet in height, the general form being that of a dome. The sand and grass are 

 sometimes scraped up for a distance of from fifteen to sixteen feet from its outer edge. The mound 

 appears to be constructed as follows : — A nearly circular hole of about eighteen inches in diameter 

 is scratched in the ground to the depth of seven or eight inches, and filled with dead leaves, dead 

 grass, and similar materials ; and a large mass of the same substance is placed all around it upon the 

 ground. Over this first layer a large mound of sand, mixed with dried grass, &c., is thrown, and 

 finally the whole assumes the form of a dome, as I have before stated. 



" When an egg is to be deposited, the top is laid open, and a hole scraped in its centre, within 

 two or three inches of the bottom of the layer of dead leaves. The egg is placed in the sand just 

 at the edge of the hole, in a vertical position, with the smaller end downwards ; the sand is then 

 thrown in again, and the mound left in its original form. The egg which has thus been deposited 

 is therefore completely surrounded and enveloped in soft sand, having from four to six inches of sand 

 between the lower end of the egg and the layer of dead leaves. When a second egg is laid, it is 

 deposited in precisely the same plane as the first, but at the opposite side of the hole before alluded 

 to. When a third egg is laid, it is still placed in the same plane as the others, but, as it were, at the 

 third comer of a square. When the fourth egg is laid, it is still placed in the same plane, but in the 

 fourth corner of the square, or rather of the lozenge, the figure being of this form, o o ; the next 

 four eggs in succession are placed in the interstices, but always on the same plane, so that at last 

 there is a circle of eight eggs all standing upright in the sand, with several inches of sand intervening 

 between each. The male bird assists the female in opening and covering up the mound, and, 

 provided the birds are not themselves disturbed, the female continues to lay several eggs in the same 

 mound, even after it has been several times robbed. The natives say that the females lay an egg 

 every day. Eight is the greatest number I have heard of, from good authority, as having been found 

 in one nest. 



" The farthest point north at which I have seen the breeding-places of these birds is in Gantheaume 

 Bay. The natives of King George's Sound say that the bird exists in their neighbourhood. I have 

 never fallen in wth its nests but in one description of country, viz., where the soil was dry and sandy, 

 and so thickly wooded with a species of dwarf Leptospermum that if you stray from the paths it is 

 almost impossible to force your way through." 



Besides the above particulars, we have from Gould the following account, which he elicited 



