

BRUSH TURKEY, 69 
in their statements of this kind. After robbing a nest it is neces- 
sary to replace the different layers as they were found, or the birds 
will invariably forsake the mound. These birds frequently bring 
the débris from a considerable distance ; on the Richmond River | 
noticed a place where about a cartload had been scratched through 
a shallow part of a creek 3 or 4 inches deep in water, and up the 
other side of the bank to the mound, which was over 40 yards 
distant. The débris is always thrown behind them. ‘The greatest 
number of eggs taken from one mound at a time was 36 ; this was a 
very old mound and resorted to by several individuals, The eggs 
vary much insize, and in shape from almost round to a long 
oval, or pointed at the thin end; their usual form is an oval 
slightly smaller at one end. _The shell is very thin, minutely 
granulated, and snow-white. Size, 3°5 x 2°4 inches. 
In the spring and summer of 1859 a pair of talegallas, kept in the 
Gardens of the Zoological Society, London, formed alargemound com- 
posed of leaves, grass, earth and other macerials. Within this mound 
the female deposited 20 eggs. On the morning of the 26th August a 
young talegallus crept out of the mound, and, quite regardless of its 
parent, ran about searching for worms and other insects, upon which 
it fed with as much adroitness and apparent knowledge as the chick 
of a common fowl would exhibit at a month old. Towards night it 
flew to a branch about six feet from the ground and settled there, 
the female taking no notice whatever of her offspring. On the 
superintendent looking into the mound two days afterwards, he 
observed a second young bird moving about and busily engaged 
cleaning its feathers with its bill. This young bird remained in the 
mound about 24 hours after it had escaped from the shell, during 
this time the wing and other feathers were freed from their covering, 
so that it could fly on quitting the mound. The two young birds 
took no notice of each other or of the old female. They were full 
grown in three months. 
Food.—They feed on seeds, berries and insects; their stomach 
is extremely muscular. : 
Where found.—Its habitat is New South Wales and Queensland. 
It is found near Cape York and Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, 
Wide Bay. It is nearly extinct in the Maitland and Illawarra 
brushes, but is met with in the dense and little-trodden brushes of 
the Manning and the Clarence, also on the Brezi Range to the north 
of Liverpool Plains, and in all the hills on either side of the Namoi. 
It is becoming scarce near Rockingham Bay, 
Liggs used by the Blacks. —Mr, Macgillivray, the naturalist to 
the expedition undertaken by H M.S. Rattlesnake, says: ‘* Many 
brush turkeys (Talegalla lathami) were shot by our sportsmen, and 
scarcely a day passed on which the natives did not procure for us 
some of the eggs. The mode in which these and other eggs are 
cooked by the blacks is to roll them up in two or three large leaves, 
and roast them in the ashes; the eggs burst, of course, but the 
leaves preyent the contents from escaping, Both bird and eggs are 

