310 
Birds. 
S r 
o.A^n-> 
V>» 
THE MOUND-BIRD OF AUSTRALIA. 
(Megapodius tumulus.) 
It is remarkable that this bird does not hatch its eggs 
by incubation. It collects together a great heap. of decay- 
ing vegetables as the place of deposit of ixs eggs, thus 
making a hotbed, arising from the decomposition of the 
collected matter, by the heat ot which the young are 
hatched. This mound varies in quantity from two to 
four cart-loads, and is not the work 01 a single pair of 
birds, but is the result of the united labour of many 
Mr. Gould, in his Birds of Australia, gives the follow- 
ing account of the discovery of one of these nests by 
Mr. Gilbert :— 
" I landed beside a thicket, and had not proceeded tar 
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, 
and was of a conical form, twenty feet in circumference at 
the base, and about five feet in height. On pointing it 
