206 
CRUISE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
now saw for the first, time many new species which are 
quite distinct from those previously met with. White 
and black cockatoos were abundant, and their loud 
screams, conspicuous colour, and pretty yellow crests 
rendered them a very important feature in the land- 
scape. Besides these were white pigeons, beautiful 
coloured parrots and lories, thrushes, leatherheads, 
the gorgeous rifle bird, and some thirty or forty 
others. Amongst this strange lot were the mound- 
makers ( Megapodius Gouldii ), which are found here 
and in the surrounding islands. They are allied to the 
gallinaceous birds, but differing from them and from 
all others in never sitting on their eggs, which they 
bury in mounds of sand and rubbish, and leave to be 
hatched by the sun or by fermentation. Several of 
these birds were shot by our party, and all seemed to 
be characterised by very large feet and long curved 
claws, which probably enable them to scratch to- 
gether all kinds of rubbish, dead leaves, sticks, 
stones, earth, rotten wood, &c., until they form a 
large mound, often 6 feet high and 12 feet across, in 
the middle of which they bury their eggs, which are 
of a brick-red colour, about the size of a swan’s. A 
number of birds are supposed to join in making these 
mounds, and lay their eggs together ; so that some- 
times as many as forty or fifty are found on one 
mound. These nests are met with in the densest 
parts of the forests, and at first we were quite puzzled 
as to who could have gathered together these heaps of 
