324 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



Another species of mound-making bird is tolerably common 

 about Port Essington. This is the Austkalian Jungle Fowl 

 (Megapodivs tumvlus), which makes earth-mounds of prodigious 

 size, one of them which was measured being no less than fifteen 

 feet in perpendiciilar height, and twenty feet in diameter. If 

 the reader will measure off twenty feet along the floor of a room, 

 and fifteen feet upon the walls, he will form a conception of the 

 enormous size of these tumuli. These heaps are always placed 

 under shelter, and are sometimes so enveloped in foliage that, in 

 spite of their great size, they can scarcely be discovered. The 

 materials of which they are composed are rather variable, accord- 

 ing to the locality, but the general mass consists of leaves, grass, 

 and other vegetable matter. 



Vast numbers of eggs are laid in these nests, and are placed 

 at a considerable depth, some of them being as much as six or 

 seven feet from the top of the heap. They are deposited in a 

 curious manner, the bird scratching its way into the heap, laying 

 an egg, and then filling up the hole as she makes her way out 

 again. The natives always use their hands in digging out these 

 eggs, because their fingers can follow the track of the bird, the 

 softer and looser material acting as a guide. A twig is generally 

 used as a probe by which the presence of a hole is detected, but 

 the hands are the only tools which are used in following up the 

 tortuous track, which sometimes proceeds in a straight line, and 

 then turns suddenly at an angle, the bird having come on a stone 

 or some such obstacle which prevents her &om continuing in the 

 same line. 



It is a remarkable fact that these mounds are always found 

 near the sea, and in one instance a heap was seen on the very 

 shore, only just above highwater mark. 



The curious bird called by the natives Leipoa, and by colonists 

 the Native Pheasant {Leipoa ocellatd), is another of the mound- 

 makers. In order to avoid confusing the mind of the reader, I 

 may here mention that there are three Australian birds which 

 are popularly called pheasants, the one being the Leipoa, and the 

 others the two species of lyre-bird (Menwrd). The Leipoa certainly 

 has a very pheasant-like appearance, both in the general outline 

 of the head and body, together with the pencilled plumage, the 

 long tail being only wanted in order to complete the resemblance. 



