New York Zoological Society. 
OCELLATED MEGAPODE (Lipoa ocellata). Also called Brush Turkey, Mallee 
Hen, Native Pheasant. Length: 2% feet. Range : Southern and Western Australia. 
Megapodes do not nest upon their eggs but build mounds of earth and 
decaying vegetation. The heat produced by the rotting materials within the 
mound incubates the eggs. The young are fully feathered and able to fly at 
birth. 
eat their flesh, which is variously reported as tender and succulent, or tough 
and unpalatable. 
Megapodes roam in pairs or small groups, searching for roots, fallen 
fruit, insects and snails. They run swiftly when alarmed and fly but rarely. 
Their flight is heavy, noisy and usually brief, concluding in the lower 
branches of a nearby tree, whence they hop to the higher branches. They 
are known to fly from island to island in the Indo-Australian archipelago 
where they range from the Philippines to New Guinea. In captivity they 
seldom live for more than a dozen years. 
The note of the brush turkey is a hoarse croak in the daytime. At 
night it cackles and mews. 
The curassows and guans, turkey-like fowl of Central and South 
America, are closely related to the megapodes but differ sharply in their 
nesting habits. Their eggs are laid usually in bulky nests constructed of 
sticks, leaves and grass placed on the upper branches of lofty trees. They 
are considered fine game birds and are frequently tamed but never domes¬ 
ticated. 
