CONCEALED OR COVERED NESTS 127 



made close to the sea shore on sandy beaches ; others 

 at varying distances inland in the forests. One or 

 two of these mounds may, with advantage, be de- 

 scribed in detail. That made by the Nicobar Mound 

 Bird (Megapodius nicobariensis) is described by Davison 

 as being made of dry leaves, sticks, etc., mixed with 

 earth, and from three to eight feet high and from 

 twelve to sixty feet in circumference, according to 

 its age. The eggs were buried from three to four 

 feet deep. He described the surface soil only of 

 these mounds as being dry; about a foot deep the 

 sand is slightly damp and cold ; but deeper the sand 

 gets damper and the warmth increases. Another 

 species, Megapodius cumingi, forms a mound just 

 within the jungle above high-water mark of very 

 similar materials and some twenty feet in diameter, 

 the eggs being deposited at a depth of from one foot 

 to three feet, the ground round them being very hard. 

 Very similar remarks apply to the Megapodius mac- 

 gillivrayi, which forms the same kind of mound, about 

 five feet high and fifteen feet in diameter. Several of 

 the species (M. eremita, Eulipoa wallacii) excavate a 

 burrow in the sand, laying a single egg in each hole, 

 the latter then being sealed up with sand and the egg 

 left to hatch in due course. Another typical Megapode 

 (Megapodius duperreyi) forms a mound five feet high 

 and twenty feet in circumference of sand and shells 

 mixed with a little soil on the shore a few feet above 

 high-water mark, depositing the eggs in burrows six 



