THE ANIMAL KINGDOJI. 257 



and leaves which he heaped up at this spot. Thej^ are 

 placed at exactly equal distances from each other, and in 

 a vertical position. When the laying is completed, the 

 Megapodins abandons its master-piece and its offspring, 

 Providence having revealed to it that henceforth it is no 

 longer useful to them. 



Endowed with a marvellous chemical instinct, this bird 

 only collects such a mass of vegetable matter, that it may 

 commit the hatching of its eggs to the fermentation they 

 produce. It is in fact on the heat so engendered that the 

 bird relies for supplying her place; the mother thus sub- 

 stituting a chemical process for her own cares. 



Reaumur proposed to leave the incubation of our hens' 

 eggs to the heat of dung, but they were poisoned by its 

 mephitic vapours. The Megapodins, more judicious than 

 the celebrated academician, employs the fei^mentation of 

 grass and leaves, which is not attended by the same 

 inconvenience. 



Everything in the history of this animal is extraordi- 

 nary. Instead of being born naked, or covered with down, 

 and of issuing from the egg incapable of procuring its 

 subsistence, the young Megapodins, when it lireaks its 

 shell, is already provided with feathers fitted for flight. 

 It is scarcely free ere it aspires to seek the light and air, 

 throws off the leaves which surround and stifle it, mounts 

 on the crest of its tumulus, dries its yet moist Avings in 

 the sun, and tests them by a few flaps. Lastly, quickly 

 becoming confident in its strength and fortune, and having 

 cast a disturbed and inquisitive look upon the surrounding- 

 country, the feeble bird takes its flight into the atmosphere 

 and quits its cradle for ever; it knoAvs liow to nourish itself 

 so soon as it is born ! 



Another Australian bird possesses the same instinctive 



