NOVEMBEK 267 



spacious demesne many thousands of exotic creatures 

 have found a congenial home, and among them the Brush 

 Turkey {Talegall/ws Lathami), a bird bearing a general 

 resemblance to a common turkey, the male being of about 

 the same size, with a naked head and brightly coloured 

 wattles. Mr. Savile Kent, a good authority on Australasian 

 zoology, says that the incubators of this species are co- 

 operative: that several pairs of birds combine in con- 

 structing them, and lay their eggs in common; but I 

 could not learn that this had been observed at Woburn, 

 where each couple is credited with the construction of a 

 separate mound. Neither has the male bird been observed 

 keeping open a vertical ventilating shaft, as was reported 

 to be the practice of one in the Zoological Gardens. Cer- 

 tainly, in the mounds which I examined at Woburn, all 

 of which presumably contained eggs, there was nothing 

 in the nature of a shaft, although there was a distinct, 

 but shallow depression on the summit of each. Never- 

 theless, the male bird has been seen at Woburn to visit 

 the mound during the process of incubation, and to thrust 

 his wattles into it at different parts as though he were 

 taking the temperature. The mounds themselves resemble 

 nothing so much as heaps of garden refuse. The brush 

 turkey does not build such enormous heaps as those of 

 the Australian megapode, although it is a far larger bird. 

 Those at Woburn vary between thirty and fifty feet in 

 circumference, and between four and five feet in height, 

 and appear to contain three or four tons of material. They 

 are constructed in thick parts of the wood, generally under 

 the dense shade of yew, fir, or other evergreen. Some- 

 times the brush turkey repairs an old mound for the eggs 

 of a new season, but as often as not a new one is started. 



