MEGAPODIUS TUMULUS, qowa.

Mound-raising Megapode.

Megapodius tumulus, Go roc. of S
gy 5 S xould in Proce. of Zool. Soc., February 8, 1849.
Oooregoorga, Aborigines of the Cobourg Peninsula.

Jungle-fowl, Colonists of Port Essington.

Tue discovery of a species of US 1 strali
y of a species of Megapodius in Australia, as soon as the northern portions of the country

should be subjected to a careful iny estigation, is no more than might have been expected, considering that
New tWdNne|a : wae: 190A ial; . or r > j y | :
New Guinea and the adjacent islands are the great nursery of this extraordinary tribe of birds

- Pe Mee ma first came under my observation I conceived it to be the AZ. rubripes of
aa aes a ee ¥ that species in the Museums of Paris and

yder = peme: de - Its much greater size and more than proportionately
powerful legs are among the specific differences which will be observable by those who may feel disposed to
institute a comparison. Interesting as this bird must be to every needling to myself 7 is peculiarly so
since the valuable notes on its habits and economy which happily I am enabled fe give fully poptein all
Ca ; nee p ana ane eS the et mall a of incubation of the t ticealla, verifying
the opmion I have before expressed, that MWegapodius, Talegalla and Leipoa are most nearly allied genera
forming part of a great family of birds, whose range will be found to extend from the Philippines through
the islands of the Indian Archipelago to Australia. :

The Megapodius Tumulus is rather numerously spread over the whole of the Cobourg Peninsula on the
north coast of the Australian continent, where the British settlement of Port Essington is now established ;
future research will doubtless require us to assign to it a much wider range, probably over the whole extent
of the north coast. : ;

The following account of its habits is taken from Mr. Gilbert’s notes; and, novel and extraordinary as
my description of those of Talegalla and Leipoa may have been considered, this will be read with even

ereater interest.

“On my arrival at Port Essington my attention was attracted to numerous immense mounds of earth, which were pointed out
to me by some of the residents as the tumuli of the aborigines ; on the other hand I was assured by the natives that they were
formed by the Jungle-fowl for the purpose of incubating its eggs: their statement appeared so extraordinary, and so much at variance
with the general habits of birds, that no one in the settlement believed them, or took sufficient interest in the matter to examine
the mounds, and thus to verify or refute their accounts ; another circumstance which induced a doubt of their veracity, was the
great size of the eggs brought in by the natives as those of this bird. Aware that the eggs of Leipoa were hatched in a similar
manner, my attention was immediately arrested by these accounts, and I at once determined to ascertain all I possibly could
respecting so singular a feature in the bird’s economy ; and having procured the assistance of a very intelligent native, who under-
took to guide me to the different places resorted to by the bird, I proceeded on the sixteenth of November to Knocker’s Bay, a part
of Port Essington Harbour comparatively but little known, and where I had been informed a number of these birds were always to
be seen. I landed beside a thicket, and had not proceeded far from the shore ere I came to a mound of sand and shells, with a
slight mixture of black soil, the base resting on a sandy beach, only a few feet above high water mark ; it was enveloped in the
large yellow-blossomed Hibiscus, was of a conical form, twenty feet in circumference at the base, and about five feet in height. On
pointing it out to the native and asking him what it was, he replied, ‘ Oooregoorga Rambal,’ Jungle-fowls’ house or nest. I then
scrambled up the sides of it, and to my extreme delight found a young bird in a hole about two feet deep ; it was lying on a few dry

withered leaves, and appeared to be only a few days old. So far I was satisfied that these mounds had some connexion with the

bird’s mode of incubation ; but I was still sceptical as to the probability of these young birds ascending from so great a depth as the
natives represented, and my suspicions were confirmed by my being unable to induce the native, in this instance, to search for the
eggs, his excuse being that ‘ he knew it would be of no use, as he saw no traces of the old birds having recently been there.’ I took
the utmost care of the young bird, intending to rear it if possible ; I therefore obtained a moderately sized box, and placed in it a large
As it fed rather freely on bruised Indian corn I was in full hopes of succeeding, but it proved of so wild and in-

portion of sand.
f to such close confinement, and effected its escape on the third day. During

tractable a disposition that it would not reconcile itsel hii !
the period it remained in captivity it was incessantly occupied in scratching up the sand into heaps, and the rapidity with which it
threw the sand from one end of the box to the ot
that of a small quail. At night it was so restless that
In scratching up the sand it only used one foot, and havi
and without shifting its standing position on the other leg; tl
, and to have but little connexion with its feeding; for although Indian corn

her was quite surprising for so young and small a bird, its size not being larger than
I was constantly kept awake by the noise it made in its endeavours to escape.
ng grasped a handful as it were, the sand was thrown behind it, with but
little apparent exertion, ris habit seemed to be the result of an innate
restless disposition and a desire to use its powerful feet
was mixed with the sand, I never detected the bird in picking
“ T continued to receive the eggs without having an opportunity of seeing them ta
when on again visiting Knocker’s Bay I had the gratification of seeing two taken from a depth of six feet, :
mounds I id then en In this instance the holes ran down in an oblique direction from the a pore ue outer era of the
hillock, so that although the eggs were six feet deep from the summit, they were on two 2 three feet from ue ee = birds are
said to lay but a single egg in each hole, and after the egg is deposited the earth is immediately thrown down lightly unl the hole
a ren smoothed and rounded over. It is easily known when a Jungle-fowl has been
and sides of the mound, and the earth being so lightly

etected, the ease or difficulty of thrusting the stick down

any of it up while thus employed.
ken from the mound until the sixth of February,
in one of the largest

is filled up; the upper part of the mound is tl
recently excavating, from the distinct impressions of its feet on the top
thrown over, that with a slender stick t

indicating the length of time that may h

he direction of the hole is readily d
ave elapsed since the bird’s operations. Thus far it is easy enough ; but to reach the eggs
é : : . .
i ceverance. The natives dig them up with their hands alone, and only make sufficient room
requires no little exertion and perseverance. g