MALLEB FOWL. 
tliG main rsason wliy they freq^uent th.6 Mall©© is that this typ© of growth is 
©ss©ntial for th© sncc©ssfiil incubation of th©ir ©ggs. Th© Mall©© scrub is 
open, and. its narrow lanceolate shaped leaves, set on the tops of this 
Eucalypt’s slender trunks (which usually branch out from the root in separate 
stems to a height of between 4 to 20 feet, averaging some 10 feet in height) 
allows the sun’s rays to penetrate and warm the mound, thereby assisting the 
heat engendered by the fermenting vegetable material, with which the Lipoa 
surrounds its eggs, the warmth of which is necessary to successfully hatch 
them out. Years ago, before the country was opened up, the Mallee hens existed 
within 35 miles to the West of Melbourne, and ranged through Southern 
Australia to Wilcannia in New South Wales, laying between the 31st and 32nd 
latitude, to which position also they have been found to reach in South 
Australia, whilst they extend as far north as the tropical Murchison River 
in West Australia, which lies between the 26th and 28th parallels of south 
latitude. Evidences of the existence of this bird have been found between Cue 
and Separation Wells in the great North-West Desert of West Australia. 
“ In choosing a site for its nesting-mound the Leipoa, in its Mallee habitat, 
usually selects an open space in the scrub with a break or opening to the north 
or east, so as to admit the sun’s rays, which have so important an influence on 
the incubation. On the opposite side of the mound the scrub is usually dense, 
and offers protection against the windy weather that blows from these quarters. 
As the outer covering of the mounds in Mallee country is composed chiefly 
of sand, this break-wind prevents the undue displacement of the superimposed 
material. The choosing of a site where the rays of the sun can fall upon the 
mound and warm it, as well as the selection of a place where the mound is 
protected by a break-wind, together with the circular style of architecture of 
the mound, which renders it less liable to damage by wind, emphasises the truly 
marvellous knowledge of the laws of physics possessed by the Leipoa. Although 
the mounds are constructed as a rule in these sites in the Mallee, yet I have 
examined a mound which had been built in the centre of a patch of scrub, the 
stem of which stuck up through the mound in all directions, whilst the leaves of 
the Mallee scrub overhead shielded the mound to a great extent from the sun’s 
rays. Within the egg chamber of this mound, however, there was a^ greater 
supply of decomposing vegetable matter to create greater heat. Mr. Charles 
M‘Lennan, better known as ‘ Mallee Bird,’ who has had over twenty years 
experience of the ways of the Leipoa, and who has greatly assisted me in my 
investigations of the life-history of these birds, informs me that he has found 
the Leipoa utihzing the heaps of sand thrown out of a rabbit-warren for building 
their mound, which they had erected in the centre of the burrows, thereby 
saving a large amount of toil, which represented a fortnight’s work for the 
birds. In other districts outside the ‘ Mallee ’ area, which the Leipoa frequents 
47 
