SCRUB FOWL. 
Mr. Dudley Le Souef gives the following account : — “ These birds are 
found on the north-east coast of Queensland, always inhabiting the densest 
scrub, and never very far from the coast, and in the low-lying country on 
each side of many of the tidal rivers for a short distance inland. They are 
also found on many of the small scrub -covered islands of the coast, and 
although the birds are very poor fliers, they must have winged their way out 
to the islands somehow, as in many cases they are situated a good many miles 
from the mainland. It is possible they may have been blown out during a 
cyclone. The want of water on many of these islands does not seem to 
make any difference to them. 
“ The male and female are very similar in appearance, being of a dark 
brown colour, the male being the darker of the two. They are difficult to 
detect in the scrub, especially when they remain quiet, which they often do on 
being first disturbed. Their habits are shy and solitary, and they are rarely 
seen, as, on being alarmed, they can run very quickly, keeping in the thickest 
cover, or else they fly into a low branch of a tree, and on perceiving any 
movement on the part of the cause of their disturbance they fly heavily 
away. They use their wings much more readily than the Brush Turkey 
[Alectura lathami], and fly more freely through the scrub. They are generally 
very silent during the day, but when they are going fco roost near the tops 
of the high trees, they often utter a loud double call, and frequently repeat 
it all night at intervals of half an hour or so. Their food consists of snails, 
insects, berries, etc. 
“ The scrub-hens generally make their mounds in thick scrub, and 
apparently without any particular choice of locality ; they are often placed 
just above high-water mark on the coast, and of course are then mostly 
composed of sand mixed with stones, roots, sticks, and leaves, while further 
inland earth takes the place of sand. But, unlike the Mallee-Fowl [Leipoa 
ocellata] or Brush Turkey [Alectura lathami], they form their mounds mostly 
of soil, with just sufficient vegetation mixed with it to cause it to heat. Again, 
they do not scrape out their mounds every season, but add to them, so that, 
as they are largely composed of soil, in the course of a few years they become 
of considerable size, and shrubs and trees often grow on them, and in course of 
time fill them with a net-work of roots. By that time, however, the birds 
generally desert them, not so much on account of the roots, but because the 
vegetation has become decomposed and no longer generates sufficient heat. 
When a pair of birds start a nesting-mound it is often very small the fir st 
year, about 2 feet high and 5 feet in diameter at the base, and you find mounds 
from that size up to 14 feet high and 35 feet in diameter at the base. 
The birds generally make the top portion of the mound up and add to it 
in July and August, apparently to let sufficient moisture penetrate before they 
39 
