BRUSH TURKEY. 
bottom one, the birds will invariably forsake the mound. . . . They 
frequently bring the debris from a considerable distance ; and in one instance 
on the Richmond River I noticed a place where about a cartload had been 
scratched through a shallow part of a creek 3 or 4 inches deep in water and 
up the other side of the bank to the mound, which was over 40 yards distant. 
The debris is always throvm behind them. The greatest number of eggs taken 
from one mound at one time was thirty-six. This was a very old mound and 
resorted to by several individuals.”* 
“ In disposition these birds are shy and wary, dwelling in the thickest and 
most scrubby bushes ; eluding pursuit rather by swiftness of foot than by their 
powers of flight, which are limited ; when hard pressed, they spring into a 
tree, and, by a succession of leaps ‘ upwards ’ from branch to branch, soon attain 
a sufflcient elevation to enable them to fly ofl to a place of greater security. ’’"f 
Mr. Dudley Le Souef writes : — “ They are generally silent, but during 
the nesting season the male, when at the mound, often makes a hoarse 
kind of call, and also when roosting in the evening. Their food consists 
of insects and berries, and at night they roost as high on scrub trees as 
they can get. 
“ They make their mounds in the dense scrub anywhere, either on the level 
surface or on the side of a hill ; when at the latter place they scrape the 
material for the mound from the upper side only. The same site is used year 
after year, but the mound is entirely remade, and is composed largely of leaves 
and twigs, with comparatively little soil, consequently very little of the mound 
is left when the next nesting season comes round. The birds scrape together 
the surface leaves and other stuff which form the mound without previously 
preparing the ground, and the male bird does nearly all the work. Not only so, 
but when the mound is flnished, he is always near at hand, walking over and add- 
ing to it, and seems to constitute himself sole guardian. The mounds vary in 
size, but average about 3 feet 6 inches high in the centre, and 10 feet in diameter 
at the base. They are generally made up early in September, and the birds 
commence laying in October or early in November. The leaves are scraped 
together during damp weather to cause them to heat, and the large powerful 
claws of the birds enable them to do this very quickly. 
“ When the mound is sufficiently heated for eggs, the hen bird scrapes a 
hole in it on one side near the top, from a foot to 18 inches deep, and, laying 
her egg in it, places it on end with the small end down, and then covers it up ; 
but while she is on the mound the male bird vigorously beats her, apparently 
trying to drive her off, and on one occasion, in confinement, to my knowledge, 
killing her. 
* Ramsay, P.Z.S., p. 116 (1876). 
t Gould, Tasm. Journ., I., p. 22. 
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