the Alectura Lathami. 
23 
town eggs : tlie great mass of vegetation which has been 
thus brought together soon beginning to undergo a 
partial decomposition, engenders sufficient heat for the 
purpose of incubation. The eggs are then deposited in 
the heap by the female in a most singular manner; not 
side by side as is usual, but singly, arranged round the 
interior of the mound, at about 9 or 10 inches apart, and 
about an arm’s length from the outside: the eggs being 
planted perpendicularly, with the small end downwards . 
That several females sometimes lay their eggs in the 
same mound, is evident from the circumstance of many a 
44 bucket-full ” of eggs being, as the blacks say, taken 
at one time from one spot. The egg is perfectly white, 
of an oblong form, and nearly the size of that of a goose. 
I have myself personally visited several of these breeding 
places, and taken the eggs. During the period of 
hatching, the birds, as I am informed by the natives, are 
constantly in the neighbourhood of the heap, over which 
they strut with great pride, particularly the male, whose 
brilliantly-coloured wattle is at these times swollen out 
to its f fullest extent, while he parades backwards and 
forwards, displaying great pugnacity on the approach 
of an intruder. The natives also say that the female is 
constantly watching the heat, by uncovering or adding 
more herbage, as her instinct teaches her the process 
may require. I have not fully satisfied myself whether 
the young, as soon as hatched, leave the heap and 
accompany their parents, or whether they remain without 
their fostering care. I am inclined to believe the latter is 
the case, and that the heated mass brings forth a sufficient 
supply of insects, upon which they can subsist until their 
strength enables them to seek further. My opinion on 
this point is strengthened by the circumstance of the 
young bird being frequently found under the leaves 
