i8§ waakpaomM, 



liallee country of Victoria and South Australia. It scrapes up 

 huge mounds of sand and decayed vegetable matter, leaves, grass, 

 &c., and deposits its eggs, usually six or eight in number at the 

 bbttom, leaving the young birds when hatched by the heat of the 

 mound to scramble out and shift for themselves the best way they 

 can. Eggs when fresh, are of a delicate pinky-white, but after 

 remaining in the mound a few days they become a dirty reddish- 

 brown. The shell is very thin, and when removing the eggs from 

 the mound unless a great amount of care is used in uncovering 

 them, they are easily broken. 



Five eggs taken by Mr. James Ramsay, from a mound in the 

 Merule Scrubs, in October 1869, measure as follows : — (A) 3'4 x 

 2-24 inches; (B) 347 x 2-3 inches j (C) 3-55 x 2-35 inches; (D) 

 3-36 X 24 inches ; (E) 3-67 x 2-27 inches. 



Pour eggs taken by Mr. K!. H. Bennett in the Lachlan District 

 in October 1883, give the following measurements : — length (A) 

 3-62 X 2-35 inches ; (B) 343 x 2-25 inches; (C) 345.x 2-24 inches; 

 (D) 3-5 X 2-36 inches. 



For full and exhaustive accounts of the mound raising habits of 

 this bird, see Gould's Handbook to the Birds of Australia, Vol. ii., 

 p. 155; and "Habits of the MaUee Hen, Leipoa ocellata, by K. 

 H. Bennett," in the Proc. Linn. Soc. of New South Wales, Vol. 

 viii., p. 183. 



Hah. New South Wales, Interior, Victoria and South Australia, 

 West and South- West Australia. (Bamsay.) 



Genus MEGAPODIUS, Quoy et Gaimard. 



MEGAPODIUS TUMULUS, Gould. 

 Australian Megapode. 

 Oould, Randlh. Bds. Aust , Vol. ii., sp., 478, p. 167. 



" This Mound-raiser is very plentiful north after passing Port 

 Denison ; I found it also in tolerable numbers as far south as the 

 Pioneer River.- They are strictly confined to the dense scrubs. 



