89 
the level of the sea, in a north-north-east direction from Drum- 
mond’s house in the Toodgay : their sides are thickly clothed with 
a dense forest of Eucalypti ; and at their base is a thicket, extend- 
ing for several miles, of upright-growing and thick bushy plants, so 
high in most parts that we could not see over their tops, and so dense, 
that if we separated only for a few yards, we were obliged to cooey, 
to prevent our straying from each other; this thicket is again sha- 
dowed by a very curious species of dwarf Eucalyptus bearing yellow 
blossoms and growing from fifteen to thirty feet in height, known to 
the natives as the spear-wood, and of which they make their spears, 
digging sticks, dowaks, &c. ; the whole formation is a fine reddish 
ironstone gravel, and this the Leipoa scratches up from several yards 
around, and thus forms its mound, to be afterwards converted into a 
hot-bed for the reproduction of its offspring. The interior of the 
mounds is composed of the finer particles of the gravel mixed with 
vegetable matter, the fermentation of which produces a warmth 
sufficient for the purpose of hatching. Mr. Drummond, who had 
been for years accustomed to hot-beds in England, gave it as his 
opinion that the heat around the eggs was about 80°. In both the 
nests with eggs the White Ant was very numerous, making its little 
covered galleries of earth around and attached to the shell, thus 
showing a beautiful provision of Nature in preparing the necessary 
tender food for the young bird when emerging from the shell ; one of 
the eggs I have preserved shows the White Ant’s tracks most beauti- 
fully ; the largest mound I saw, and which appeared as if in a state 
of preparation for eggs, measured forty-five feet in circumference, 
and if rounded in proportion on the top would have been full five 
feet in height. I remarked in all the nests not ready for the recep- 
tion of eggs the inside or vegetable portion was always wet and cold, 
and I imagine, from the state of others, that the bird turns out the 
whole of the materials to dry before depositing its eggs and cover- 
ing them up with the soil ; in both cases where I found eggs the 
upper part of the mound was perfectly and smoothly rounded over, 
so that any one passing it without knowing the singular habit of the 
bird might very readily suppose it to be an ant-hill : mounds in this 
state always contain eggs within, while those without eggs are 
not only not rounded over, but have the centres so scooped out 
that they form a hollow. The eggs are deposited in a very dif- 
ferent manner from those of the Megapodius ; instead of each being 
placed in a separate excavation in different parts of the mound, 
they are laid directly in the centre, all at the same depth, separated 
only by about three inches of earth, and so placed as to form a circle. 
I regret we were so early ; had we been a week later the probability 
is I should have found the circle of eggs complete. Is it not singu- 
lar that all the eggs were equally fresh, as if their development was 
arrested until the full number was deposited, so that the young might 
all appear about the same time? No one considering the immense 
size of the egg can for a moment suppose the bird capable of laying 
more than one without at least the intermission of a day, and per- 
haps even more. The average weight of the egg is eight ounces, 
