282 
ME GAPODIDiE • 
Mallee country of Victoria and South Australia. It scrapes up 
huge mounds of sand and decayed vegetable matter, leaves, grass, 
tfcc., and deposits its eggs, usually six or eight in number at the 
bottom, leaving the young birds when hatched by the heat of the 
mound to scramble out and shift for themselves the best way they 
can. Eggs when fresh, are of a delicate pinky-white, but after 
remaining in the mound a few days they become a dirty reddish- 
brown. The shell is very thin, and when removing the eggs from 
the mound unless a great amount of care is used in uncovering 
them, they are easily broken. 
Five eggs taken by Mr. James Ramsay, from a mound in the 
Merule Scrubs, in October 1869, measure as follows:—(A) 3 - 4 x 
2- 24 inches; (B) 3-47 x 2-3 inches; (C) 3'55 x 2*35 inches; (D) 
3*36 x 2 - 4 inches ; (E) 3-67 x 2*27 inches. 
Four eggs taken by Mr. K. IT. Bennett in the Lachlan District 
in October 1883, give the following measurements :—length (A) 
3- 62 x 2-35 inches ; (B) 3-43 x 2-25 inches; (C) 3-45 x 2*24 inches; 
(D) 3 - 5 x 2-36 inches. 
For full and exhaustive accounts of the mound raising habits of 
this bird, see Gould’s Handbook to the Birds of Australia, Vol. ii., 
p. 155; and “Habits of the Mallee Hen, Leipoa ocellata, by K. 
H. Bennett,” in the Proc. Linn. Soc. of New South Wales, Vol. 
viii., p. 183. 
Hob. New South Wales, Interior, Victoria and South Australia, 
West and South-West Australia. ( Ramsay.) 
Genus MEGAPODIUS, Quoy ct Gaimard. 
MEGAPODIUS TUMULUS, Gould. 
Australian Megapode. 
Gould, Ilandbk. Bds. Aust , Vol. ii., sp., 478, p. 1G7. 
“ This Mound-raiser is very plentiful north after passing Port 
Denison ; I found it also in tolerable numbers as far south as the 
Pioneer River. They are strictly confined to the dense scrubs, 
