having been found in one nest; but I opened a mound which had been
previously robbed of several eggs, and found that two had been laid
opposite to each other in the same plane in the usual manner; and a
third deposited in a plane parallel to that in which the other two
were placed, but 4½ inches below them. This circumstance led me to
imagine it was possible that there might be sometimes successive
circles of eggs in different planes.
“I enclose three sketches which will convey to you a complete idea of
the form of the mound, and of the manner in which the eggs are placed
in it. These sketches were drawn by Mr. Knight, from a rude one of
mine, and are very accurate.
[Illustration:
No. 1.
This sketch represents a section through the mound after the sand has
been cleared out in
such a manner that the eggs could all be removed, and the bottom of
the nest of leaves be laid
bare. It shows the form of the opening the natives make in the mound
when they rob it of its
eggs; this opening has however been continued below where the eggs are
placed, in order to
show the form of the interior nest.
The pale tint represents that portion which is made of sand; the
darker tint the part which is
made of leaves, &c.
]
[Illustration:
No. 2.
This sketch represents a section through the mound in its undisturbed
state; the pale tint
indicates the portion of sand, the darker tint the leaves, &c.
]
[Illustration:
No. 3.
This sketch shows a bird’s eye view of the mound as seen from
above; the sand is supposed to have been so far thrown out as to
leave the tops of the eggs exposed, and to show them standing
upright in their relative positions.
]
“One of the mounds of these birds which had been robbed of its eggs on
the 11th November, some of which were quite fresh, had two fresh eggs
laid in it on the 27th of the same month, and the birds were seen at
the nest on the morning of the 28th, apparently for the purpose of
laying, when the male bird was shot.
“Sometimes several of these mounds are constructed close to one
another. I found two within 200 or 300 yards, and have seen five
within the distance of four or five miles. They were built in
precisely the same situations that I have seen them in other parts of
the continent, that is, in a sandy, scrubby country, the site of the
mound being in some little open glade, in the very thickest part of
the scrub.
“The eggs are of a light pink, the colour being brightest and most
uniform when freshly laid. As the time of hatching approaches, they
become discoloured and marked in places with dark spots.
The greatest length of these eggs is about 3‑6/10 inches.
The greatest breadth of these eggs is about 2‑2/10 inches.
Circumference in direction of length 10 inches.
Circumference in direction of breadth 7‑2/10 inches.
“The temperature of the nests I have examined has always been warm;
not so much so, however, as I should have thought necessary for the
purpose of hatching eggs.
“There are two great peculiarities about these eggs; the first is,
that both ends are of nearly the same size; which form is peculiarly
adapted to the position in which they are always placed; the egg being
compressed in every part as nearly as possible towards the axis, in
which the centre of gravity lies, there is the least possible tendency
to its equilibrium being destroyed when it is placed in a vertical
position. A second peculiarity is the extreme thinness of the shell,
and its consequent fragility. This is so great, that unless the egg is
handled with the greatest care, it is sure to be broken, and every
effort which has been made to hatch these eggs under domestic fowls
has failed, the egg having in every instance been broken by the bird
under which it was placed.
“The native name for the bird on the Murray River is _Marrak-ko_ or
_Marra-ko_; in Western Australia the name of the bird is _Ngow-o_ or
_Ngow_. The name in Western Australia is given from the tuft on its
head, _Ngoweer_ meaning a tuft of feathers.
“I have found this bird in different parts of that portion of
Australia included between the 26th and 36th parallels of south
latitude, and the 113th and 141st parallels of east longitude, and I
think that there is every probability that it inhabits a much wider
range. It is found in all the scrubby districts of South Australia.
“Yours truly, G. GREY.”
“December 14th.
“P.S.—I have, by cross examination of several natives, elicited the
following account of this bird, and I am quite satisfied of its truth.
“There is only one male and one female to each nest: they repair an
old nest, and do not build a new one; both assist in scratching the
sand to the nest. The female commences laying about the beginning of
September, or when the spear-grass begins to shoot. Both sexes
approach the nest together when the female is about to lay, and they
take an equal share in the labour of covering and uncovering the
mound. After every sunrise the female lays an egg, and lays altogether
from eight to ten. If the natives rob the nest, the female will lay
again in the same nest, but she will only lay the full number of eggs
twice in one summer. From the commencement of building, until the last
eggs are hatched, four moons elapse (this would give a very long
period of time before the eggs were hatched). The young one scratches
its way out alone; the mother does not assist it. They usually come
out one at a time; occasionally a pair appear together. The mother,
who is feeding in the scrub in the vicinity, hears its call and runs
to it. She then takes care of the young one as a European hen does of
its chick. When the young are all hatched the mother is accompanied by
eight or ten young ones, who remain with her until they are more than
half-grown. The male bird does not accompany them. The two sexes have
different calls: that of the female is constantly uttered while she
walks about in the scrub with her young ones.
“The natives frequently find the eggs and nests, but they seldom see
the old birds, which are very timid and quick-sighted. They run very
fast, like the Emu, roost on trees, and live for a long time without
water, but drink when it rains. The natives state that the _Entozoæ_
which I found in the bird mentioned above were unusual, and that it
must have been in ill health.
“It is a remarkably stout, compact bird, and appears, when alive, to
have as large a body as the female turkey, but it is shorter on the
legs.”
To this valuable account I may add the following, furnished by Mr.
Gilbert:—
“Wongan Hills, Western Australia, September 28, 1842.
“This morning I had the good fortune to penetrate into the dense
thicket I had been so long anxious to visit in search of the Leipoa’s
eggs, and had not proceeded far before the native who was with me told
me to keep a good look-out, as we were among the _Ngou-oo’s_ hillocks,
and in half an hour after we found one, around which the brush was so
thick that we were almost running over before seeing it; so anxious
was I to see the hidden treasures within that in my haste I threw
aside the black fellow and began scraping off the upper part of the
mound; this did not at all please him, and he became very indignant,
at the same time making me understand, ‘that as I had never seen this
nest before I had better trust to him to get out the eggs, or I
should, in my haste and impatience, certainly break them.’ I therefore
let him have his own way, and he began scraping off the earth very
carefully from the centre, throwing it over the side, so that the
mound very soon presented the appearance of a huge basin; about two
feet in depth of earth was in this way thrown off, when the large ends
of two eggs met my anxious gaze; both these eggs were resting on their
smaller apex, and the earth around them had to be very carefully
removed to avoid breaking the shell, which is extremely fragile when
first exposed to the atmosphere; this mound was about three feet in
height and seven to nine feet in circumference; the form, as left by
the bird, was in outline the segment of a circle. About a hundred
yards from this first nest we came upon a second, rather larger, of
the same external form and appearance; it contained three eggs.
Although we saw seven or eight more mounds, only these two contained
eggs; we were too early; a week later and we should doubtless have
found many more. To give you an idea of the place this bird chooses
for its remarkable mode of rearing its young, I will describe it as
nearly as I can:—The Wongan Hills are about thirteen hundred feet
above the level of the sea, in a north-north-east direction from
Drummond’s house in the Toodyay; their sides are thickly clothed with
a dense forest of _Eucalypti_; and at their base is a thicket,
extending for several miles, of upright-growing and thick, bushy
plants, so high in most parts that we could not see over their tops,
and so dense, that if we separated only for a few yards, we were
obliged to cooey, to prevent our straying from each other; this
thicket is again shadowed by a very curious species of dwarf
_Eucalyptus_ bearing yellow blossoms and growing from fifteen to
thirty feet in height, known to the natives as the spear-wood, and of
which they make their spears, digging sticks, dowaks, &c.; the whole
formation is a fine reddish ironstone gravel, and this the Leipoa
scratches up from several yards around, and thus forms its mound, to
be afterwards converted into a hot-bed for the reproduction of its
offspring. The interior of the mounds is composed of the finer
particles of the gravel mixed with vegetable matter, the fermentation
of which produces a warmth sufficient for the purpose of hatching. Mr.
Drummond, who had been for years accustomed to hot-beds in England,
gave it as his opinion that the heat around the eggs was about 80°. In
both the nests with eggs the White Ant was very numerous, making its
little covered galleries of earth around and attached to the shell,
thus showing a beautiful provision of Nature in preparing the
necessary tender food for the young bird when emerging from the shell;
one of the eggs I have preserved shows the White Ant’s tracks most
beautifully; the largest mound I saw, and which appeared as if in a
state of preparation for eggs, measured forty-five feet in
circumference, and if rounded in proportion on the top would have been
full five feet in height. I remarked in all the nests not ready for
the reception of eggs the inside or vegetable portion was always wet
and cold, and I imagine, from the state of others, that the bird turns
out the whole of the materials to dry before depositing its eggs and
covering them up with the soil; in both cases where I found eggs the
upper part of the mound was perfectly and smoothly rounded over, so
that any one passing it without knowing the singular habit of the bird
might very readily suppose it to be an ant-hill: mounds in this state
always contain eggs within, while those without eggs are not only
_not_ rounded over, but have the centres so scooped out that they form
a hollow. The eggs are deposited in a very different manner from those
of the Megapodius; instead of each being placed in a separate
excavation in different parts of the mound, they are laid directly in
the centre, all at the same depth, separated only by about three
inches of earth, and so placed as to form a circle. I regret we were
so early; had we been a week later, the probability is I should have
found the circle of eggs complete. Is it not singular that all the
eggs were equally fresh, as if their development was arrested until
the full number was deposited, so that the young might all appear
about the same time? No one considering the immense size of the egg
can for a moment suppose the bird capable of laying more than one
without at least the intermission of a day, and perhaps even more. The
average weight of the egg is eight ounces, and four of them on being
blown yielded nearly a pint and a half. Like those of the Megapodius,
they are covered with an epidermis-like coating, and are certainly as
large, being three inches and three quarters in length, by two and a
half in breadth; they vary in colour from a very light brown to a
light salmon. During the whole day we did not succeed in obtaining
sight of the bird, although we saw numerous tracks of its feet, and
many places where it had been scratching; we also saw its tracks on
the sand when crossing the dried beds of the swamps at least two miles
from the breeding thicket, which proves that the bird, in procuring
its food, does not confine itself to the brushes around its nest, but
merely resorts to them for the purpose of incubating. The native
informed us that the only chance of procuring the bird was by
stationing ourselves in sight of the mound at a little distance, and
remaining quiet and immoveable till it made its appearance at
sun-down; this I attempted, and, with the native, encamped within
twenty yards of the mound about an hour before sunset, taking the
precaution to conceal ourselves well with bushes from the quick eye of
the bird, but leaving just a sufficient opening to get a fair sight
with my gun; in a half-sitting, half-crouching position I thus
remained in breathless anxiety for the approach of the bird I had so
long wished to see, not daring to move a muscle, for fear of moving a
branch or making a noise by crushing a dead leaf, till I was so
cramped I could scarcely bear the pain in my limbs; the bird did not
however make its appearance, and the native, with the fear of wading
through the thicket in darkness (for there was no moon), became so
impatient, that he started up and began to talk so loud and make so
much noise, that I was compelled to give up all hopes of seeing the
bird that night; however, just as we were passing the mound we started
the bird from the opposite side, but from the denseness of the thicket
and the darkness closing around us, I had no chance of getting a shot
at it. Mr. Roe, the Surveyor-general, who examined several mounds
during his expedition to the interior in the year 1836, found the eggs
nearly ready to hatch in the month of November, and invariably seven
or eight in number; while another authority has informed me of an
instance of fourteen being taken from one mound.”
In a subsequent letter Mr. Gilbert states that the flavour of the egg is
very similar to that of the Tortoise or Turtle, and that when mixed with
tea its similarity to the peculiar roughness and earthy flavour of that
of the Hawk’s-bill Turtle is very remarkable.
Genus MEGAPODIUS, _Quoy & Gaim._
The members of this genus inhabit all the Indian and Philippine Islands
and Australia. Mr. G. R. Gray informs me that “the females of some
species associate together in bands during the night and deposit their
eggs in a cavity which they dig to the depth of two or three feet; that
the successive deposits of eggs amount to a hundred or more and are left
to be hatched by the solar rays; that some cover them with sand and
others with the remains of plants; and that the eggs are extremely large
for the size of the birds, and are generally of a cinnamon colour.”
442. Megapodius tumulus, _Gould_ Vol. V. Pl. 79.
The following interesting account of the breeding-places of this
remarkable bird has been transmitted to me by Mr. John M’Gillivray as
the result of his observations on Nogo or Megapodius Island in Endeavour
Straits. It will be seen that its range is more extensive than I had
assigned to it:—
“The most southern locality known to me for this singular bird is
Haggerston Island (in lat. 12° 3′ south), where I observed several of
its mounds of very large size, but did not see any of the birds. During
the survey of Endeavour Straits in H.M.S. Bramble, I was more fortunate,
having succeeded in procuring both male and female on the island marked
‘Nogo’ upon the chart, where I resided for several days for that sole
purpose. On this small island, not more than half a mile in length,
rising at one extremity into a low rounded hill densely covered with
jungle (or what in New South Wales would be called ‘brush’), three
mounds, one of them apparently deserted before completion, were found.
The two others were examined by Mr. Jukes and myself. The most recent,
judging from the smoothness of its sides and the want of vegetable
matter, was situated upon the crest of the hill, and measured 8 feet in
height (or 13½ from the base of the slope to the summit) and 77 feet in
circumference. In this mound, after several hours’ hard digging into a
well-packed mass of earth, stones, decaying branches and leaves and
other vegetable matter, and the living roots of trees, we found numerous
fragments of eggs, besides one broken egg containing a dead and putrid
chick, and another whole one, which proved to be addled. All were
imbedded at a depth of _six feet_ from the nearest part of the surface,
at which place the heat produced by the fermentation of the mass was
considerable. The egg, 3¼ by 2⅛ inches, was dirty brown, covered with a
kind of epidermis, which easily chipped off, exposing a pure white
surface beneath. Another mound, situated at the foot of the hill close
to the beach, measured no less than 150 feet in circumference, and to
form this immense accumulation of materials the ground in the vicinity
had been scraped quite bare by the birds, and numerous shallow
excavations pointed out whence the materials had been derived. Its form
was an irregular oval, the flattened summit not being central as in the
first instance, but situated nearer the larger end, which was elevated
14 feet from the ground, the slope measuring in various directions 18,
21½, and 24 feet. At Port Lihou, in a small bay a few miles to the
westward, at Cape York and at Port Essington, I found other mounds which
were comparatively low, and appeared to have been dug into by the
natives. The great size the tumuli (which are probably the work of
several generations) have attained on Haggerston and Nogo Islands arises
doubtless from those places being seldom visited by the Aborigines. I
found several eggs of large size in the ovarium of a female shot in
August, while the condition of the oviduct showed that an egg had very
recently passed; hence it is probable that, in spite of their great
comparative size, one bird lays several; but whether each mound is
resorted to by more than one pair, I had not the means of ascertaining.
“Few birds are more wary and less easily procured than the _Megapodius_;
it inhabits the belts of brush along the coast, and I never found the
tumulus at a greater distance from the sea than a few hundred yards.
When disturbed it seldom rises at once, unless on the margin of a
thicket, but runs off to some distance and then takes to wing, flying
heavily, but without any of the whirring noise of the true _Gallinaceæ_.
It seldom takes a long flight, and usually perches on a tree, remaining
there in a crouching attitude with outstretched neck, but flying off
again upon observing any motion made by its pursuer; and it is only by
cautiously creeping up under cover of the largest trees that it can be
approached within gunshot. As an example of its shyness, I may mention
that a party of three persons, scattered about in a small jungle on Nogo
Island, for the purpose of shooting the _Megapodius_, did not see a
single bird, although they put up several, one of which came towards me
and perched, unconscious of my presence, within 20 yards. At Port
Essington I have shot this bird among mangroves, the roots of which were
washed by the sea at high water; and Capt. F. P. Blackwood killed one
while running on the mud in a similar locality, in both instances close
to a mound. I never witnessed the escape of the young from the mound;
but one, as large as a quail, and covered with feathers, was brought to
Lieut. Ince by a native, who affirmed that he had dug it out along with
several eggs.
“Iris yellowish brown; stomach a complete gizzard, being thick and
muscular, containing small quartz pebbles, small shells (_Helix_ and
_Bulimus_), and black seeds; intestine 34 inches in length, of the size
of a goosequill, and nearly uniform in thickness, much twisted and
contracted at intervals; cæcum slender, dilated at the extremity, and
4‑6/8 inches in length.”
Family TINAMIDÆ?, _G. R. Gray_.
Subfamily TURNICINÆ, _G. R. Gray_.
Genus PEDIONOMUS, _Gould_.
Generic characters.
_Bill_ nearly as long as the head, straight, compressed towards the tip;
_nostrils_ basal, placed in a groove, and protected by an operculum;
_wings_ short and concave, first, second and third primaries equal in
length; tertiaries longer than the primaries; _tail_ nearly obsolete;
_tarsi_ elongated and defended in front with transverse scales; _toes_
four in number, the hinder one feeble and placed high on the tarsus.
Few of the discoveries I made in Australia interested me more than that
of the species forming the subject of the present genus, and of which
during my sojourn in the country I only obtained a male. Subsequently
Mr. Strange sent me another example, which from its much larger size and
the circumstance of its neck being adorned with a beautiful collar of
mingled black and white feathers, I considered a distinct species and
characterized it as such, under the name _P. torquatus_, and assigned
that of _microurus_ to the males or birds destitute of the collar, an
error which the observations of Sir George Grey and Mr. Strange have
enabled me to rectify, and which shows that this bird is another of the
anomalies so often met with in Australia, since, contrary to the general
rule, the female is a far finer and more conspicuously-coloured bird
than her mate.
“You ask me,” says Sir George Grey, “to tell you something about
_Pedionomus_. There is but one species; you have described two, _P.
torquatus_ and _P. microurus_; the former is the female and the latter
is the male. We have now three of these birds in confinement, all
similar to your _P. torquatus_. We had four; the fourth, which died, was
like your _P. microurus_; and was certainly a male; they were all caught
in the same net, hence I infer that several females associate with one
male.
“We have had several of these birds in confinement at different times;
they eat pounded wheat, raw and boiled rice, bread and flies; the latter
appear to be their favourite food. They soon become perfectly tame; the
three now in our possession we have had for upwards of four months.
“These birds are migratory; they appear at Adelaide in June and
disappear about January; where they go has not yet been ascertained.
They never fly if they can avoid so doing, and are often caught by dogs;
when disturbed, they crouch down and endeavour to hide themselves in a
tuft of grass. When running about they are in the habit of raising
themselves in a nearly perpendicular position on the extremities of
their toes, so that the hinder part of the foot does not touch the
ground, and of taking a wide survey around them. The Emu sometimes
stands in a similar position. I have not yet ascertained anything
respecting their nests, eggs or time of breeding. The call of those we
have in confinement precisely resembles that of the Emu, not the
whistle, but the hollow-sounding noise like that produced by tapping on
a cask, which the Emu utters, but is of course much fainter.”
The Plate therefore represents two females, and the appellation of
_microurus_ given to the male bird should be the one adopted. As the
male has not been figured, the following description of that sex is
given:—
Crown of the head, back and upper surface mottled with black, brown and
fawn-colour, the latter occupying the external edge of the feathers, and
the black and brown forming alternate circular markings on each feather;
throat, neck, chest and flanks dull fawn-colour, the feathers of the
neck and chest blotched with brown; flanks marked with the same colour,
assuming the form of bars; tail-feathers almost invisible; centre of the
abdomen and under tail-coverts buffy-white, without spots or markings;
irides straw-yellow passing into black at the point; feet greenish
yellow.
Total length, 4½ inches; _bill_, 11/16; _wing_, 3¼; _tarsi_, ⅞.