The natives continued to bring in eggs said to have been taken from the mounds, but Mr. 

 Gilbert had not the satisfaction of actually seeing one discovered for several months, when he was 

 rewarded by witnessing two eggs taken out from a depth of six feet. The holes ran obliquely outwards 

 from the top, 80 that, although six feet deej>, the eggs were only about three feet from the outside. The 

 finding of the eggs demands great patience and care, as well as hard work. The bird scoops 

 out the hole, a single egg only is placed in each, and the cavity is loosely filled in. The 

 natives follow its course by feeling, with the hand, which way the loose sand runs. A hole often 

 follows a tortuous track, its course being changed if the bird comes against a root or a log when 

 digging. One hillock from which an egg was taken was fifteen feet in height and sixty in 

 circumference. Here the holes ran obliquely from the top towards the centre, and the mound was 

 Completely shaded from the sun by dense foliage. 



Mosl of the mounds examined were formed of black vegetable soil, but some near the water 

 were built of sand and shells, one being of pebbly ironstone. The majority were conical, but some 

 were irregularly shaped. Sometimes they were seen in barren, sandy places, where the soil of which 

 they were formed was the only kind of that nature for miles round. In these cases Mr. Gilbert 

 concluded that they had been built of dead leaves, gathered round about, which had decomposed, 

 funning a vegetable mould. The hills are the work of very many years. Some were found with trees 

 growing from their sides, one of which was a foot in diameter. Whether the young, when hatched, 

 tice themselves or are liberated by the parents is not known. Only a single pair is believed to 

 frequent the same mound at a time. The eggs are laid at intervals of several days. 



The bird is hard to procure ; it is shy and very wary, though its flight is slow. On 

 perching it remains outstretched and perfectly motionless. The natives imitate its cry, which sounds 

 like the clucking of a domestic hen, ending in a scream like that of a peacock. 



Mr. John Macgillivray has furnished some notes of observations on the Megapode on NogO' 

 or Megapodious Island, in Endeavour Straits. This is a small island of only half a mile in length, 

 and covered with jungle. Here three of the tumuli were found, one of them being eight feet high 

 (or 1:1 feet G inches from the base of the slope to the summit) and 77 feet in circumference. 

 Another mound measured 150 feet in circumference. Its shape was an irregular oval, and its greatest 

 height was 14 feet. No new eggs were found, but many fragments were unearthed, and one dead chick. 

 Here, also, the bird was found to be very shy, and even good sportsmen found it difficult to get 

 specimens. 



Gould states he was informed that the mounds of the Megapode were common on the Lower 

 Burdekin, but that they had not been examined ; also that they were frequently seen in the scrubs on 

 the Dawson and Mackenzie. 



The eggs are laid from the end of August to March ; a thin outer shell, discoloured by the 

 soil in which it is buried, chips off easily, and the under-shell is pure white. Both ends are the 

 same shape. The egg is three inches and five lines long by two inches and three lines broad. 



In the specimens dissected by Mr. Macgillivray the stomach was " a complete gizzard, being 

 thick and muscular, containing small quartz pebbles, small shells, and black seeds ; intestine, 34 inches 

 in length, of the size of a goose-quill, and nearly uniform in thickness, much twisted and contracted 

 at intervals; caecum, slender, dilated at the extremity, and 4 6 /s inches in length." 



The head, topknot, back, and wings are a rich dark brown; neck and all of the under-surface, 

 dark slaty-grey ; tail-coverts, more chestnut ; bill, reddish-brown ; tarsi and feet, deep yellow, the 

 front scales of the legs and toes somewhat darker. 



The Megapode is about half the size of the English pheasant. 



Habitats : Northern and north-eastern coasts of Australia, and on some of the adjoining islands. 



