slands, where the true
gallinaceae do not exist. There are several distinct species of them;
some, as the _tallegalla_ or "brush turkey" of Australia, approaching in
form and general appearance to the turkey, while others resemble the
common fowl, and still others might be regarded as a species of
pheasant. They have the singular habit of depositing their eggs in
mounds of rubbish, which they scrape together for this purpose, and then
leave them to what might appear a sort of spontaneous incubation. Hence
they are usually called "mound-builders," though they do not all adhere
to the habit; some of them choosing a very different though somewhat
analogous mode of getting their eggs hatched. Naturalists have given
them the name of _megapoda_, on account of their very large feet, which,
provided with long curved claws, enable them to scratch the ground
deeply and rake together the rubbish into heaps for the safe deposit of
their eggs.

Sometimes these megapodes, as the Australians call them, for they are as
common in Australia as Borneo, raise heaps of fifteen feet in height,
and not less than sixty feet in circumference at the base.

They are large and heavy birds, unwieldy in their motions, slow and
lumbering in their flight. Their legs are thick, and their toes are
also thick and long.

There is some difference between their nest-building ways and those of
the tallegalla; yet, on the whole, the similarity is very striking, as
may be seen from the following account.

Tracing a circle of considerable radius, says Mr Wood, the birds begin
to travel round it, continually grasping with their large feet the
leaves, and grasses, and dead twigs which are lying about, and flinging
them inwards towards the centre. Each time they finish their rounds
they narrow their circle, so that they soon clear away a large circular
belt, having in its centre a low, irregular heap. By repeating the
operation they decrease the _diameter_ of the mound while increasing its
_height_, until at length a large and rudely conical mound is formed.

Next they scrape out a cavity of about four feet in the middle of the
heap, and here deposit the eggs, which are afterwards covered up, to be
hatched by the combined effects of fermentation and the sun. But the
bird does not thus escape any of the cares of maternity, for the male
watches the eggs carefully, being endowed with a wonderful instinct
which tells him the temperature suitable for them.