MEGAPODIUS TUMULUS (Gould). 



(Moimd-raising Megapode.) 



Head and crest, dark reddish brown; behind the neck, dark grey; upper surface and wings, deep cinnamon brown; upper and under 

 tail coverts, still darker brown ; throat and all the under surface, grey ; tail, blackish brown ; legs and feet, orange ; claws, black ; bill, reddish 

 brown, edged with yellow ; irides, reddish hazel, or dark brown. 



Length, 17 inches; wing, 10; tail, 5; bill, li ; tarsus, 2^; centre toe and claw, 2f ; hind ditto. If. 



This interesting bird is confined to the northern coasts of Australia, being found both at Port Denison, Cape York, and Port 



Essington, and probably in all the intervening country. It is extremely shy in disposition, and though often heard is seldom seen, as it 



secretes itself among the dense brushes on the slightest alarm. When fairly disturbed, however, it flies to an adjacent tree, and stretching 



out its neck, watches and listens intently for the intruder, who must use the greatest caution in making an approach, which the bird will 



permit to the distance of eighty or one hundred yards, but if any attempt is made to approximate still nearer it takes wing, and then it is of 



little use to follow. The flight is very heavy and laborious, but it can run with considerable swiftness. The note is described as something 



like the cluck of the domestic fowl, with a termination similar to the scream of a peacock. The singular habit of mound building invests 



this, and some allied species, with more than ordinary interest. When first discovered it was thought these structures were tumuli of the 



aborigines, but further enquiry showed that they were fashioned by a bird. The mounds vary much in size ; those recently made are not above 



four or five yards in circumference, and about five feet in height, but old ones have been met with many times that size, and as high as fifteen 



feet, with good sized trees growing out of them. The material used in their formation varies with the locality— sand, black soil, shells, &c., 



with an admixture of vegetahle matter, as leaves, grass, small sticks, &c. The feet are very powerful, and well adapted for accomplishing this 



purpose. The eggs are deposited at a considerable depth in a hole excavated by the old birds, and then covered lightly over and left to 



themselves, the spontaneous heat of the decaying vegetable matter sufficing to bring them to maturity. The natives probe the mounds with 



sticks, when, on finding a place easily penetrated, they dig down, and are often rewarded with a considerable number of eggs. Several 



females lay in the same mound. The eggs are placed on their ends, and in shape are nearly perfectly oval ; the shell is white (with a 



brownish skin outside when fresh). Some are larger than others, the average being three inches five lines long, by two inches three lines 



broad. When hatched the young are well clothed with feathers, and being uncommonly strong, manage to scratch their way out, when they 



are taken charge of by the old ones. The food consists of berries, seeds, and insects of all kinds, but especially grasshoppers and beetles. 



