MEGAPODES 
Unhampered by the usual domestic responsibilities of female birds, the 
mother megapode, or brush turkey, is at liberty to stalk about foi food 
even during the incubation season. This remarkable bird has dispensed with 
the irksome task of sitting on her eggs. 
In early spring, some weeks before the laying period, the brush turkeys 
set about preparing their nest. Male and female, working together, grasp 
decaying vegetable matter in the long curved claws of their powerful feet, 
and throw it backward to a central point. The surrounding earth becomes 
totally bare, and a conical mound comes into being, frequently attaining a 
height of six feet and a bottom diameter of fourteen feet. 
The birds start to lay their very large eggs at the outer edge of the 
mound and proceed toward the center, laying about four eggs at intervals 
of from nine to twelve inches. The eggs are placed at a depth of four to 
five feet in cavities hollowed out for the purpose by the male, and are then 
filled in with earth and vegetable matter. As the leaves and grass decay, 
the vegetable fermentation generates sufficient heat to hatch out the eggs. 
Temperatures as high as ninety-three degrees Fahrenheit have been meas¬ 
ured within megapode mounds. 
Sometimes the mounds are used year after year with slight additions 
and alterations, and are handed down from one generation to another. This 
accounts for the prodigious size of a mound found on the island of Nogo. 
The mound measured one hundred and fifty feet in circumference. 
No explanation is available as to how the newborn chick makes its 
way to the surface of the pyramid. In any case the young megapode is the 
only bird in existence which is hatched out full-feathered and capable of 
flight at birth. For a few days the chicks remain in the vicinity of the nest, 
but after that they run about like adults. 
The full-grown brush turkey attains a weight of about seven pounds. 
Its upper plumage is olive brown, its lower feathers brownish-gray. Its 
naked head and neck are pinkish-red, adorned with a bright yellow wattle. 
Australians use the feathers of these birds for feather dusters, and hunters 
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