258 
A DESCRIPTION OP 
THE JUNGLE FOWL, OR BRUSH TURKEY. 
(Megapodius tumulus.) 
THIS curious fowl is in the habit of raising immense 
mounds of earth to protect its eggs. Mr. Gould, in his 
Birds of Australia,, gives the following account of his 
discovery of one of these nests. 
" I landed beside a thicket, and had not proceeded far 
from the shore, ere I came to a mound of sand and shells, 
with a slight mixture of black soil, the base resting on a 
sandy beach, only a few feet above high water-mark ; it 
was enveloped in the large yellow-blossomed Hibiscus, was 
of a conical form, twenty feet in circumference at the 
base, and about five feet in height. On pointing it out to 
the native, and asking him what it was, he replied, 
' Oooregoorga Ranibal,' Jungle- fowls' house or nest. I 
then scrambled up the sides of it, and, to my extreme de- 
