ot deep in the
sand, and having covered it up, returns to the forest. At the end of
ten days or so she comes to the same spot and lays another egg. Each
can lay, it is said, six or eight eggs during the season. Frequently
two or three hens deposit their eggs in the same hole. The colour of
the shell is a pale brick-red. The eggs being thus deposited, the
parents take no further care of their offspring. The young birds, after
breaking their shell, work their way up through the sand, just as the
young megapodi do, and run off at once to the forest. A friend of Mr
Hooker's presented him with some, which had been carefully covered up,
and had just arrived. We took them on board the brig. The next
morning, when far out of sight of land, we heard a strange noise in the
cabin, and looking in, great was our surprise to see a covey of little
birds flying right across it. They had been hatched during the night,
and following the instincts of their nature, were making their way, as
they supposed, to their future forest home. We fed them on little bits
of chopped fruit, and such things as Mr Hooker thought would suit their
appetites.

"But what can induce the parents thus to leave their eggs?" asked Emily.
"I thought it was the nature of creatures to look after their young."

"If it was for their benefit, so it would have been," he answered; "but
I suspect that these large birds, requiring a considerable amount of
food, which consists entirely of fallen fruits, could only find it by
roaming over a wide extent of country. If, therefore, a large number
came down to this particular beach, which seems the only one fit for
hatching them during the breeding season, they would perish for want of
food. Providence, therefore, has so arranged that they should return to
the districts where they can find their food; whilst the young ones, not
requiring so much, are able to make their way as their strength will
allow in the same direction."

We had a full-grown stuffed maleo on board. Its claws were sharp and
straight, and very different from those of the megapodi. The toes,
however, were strongly webbed at the base; the leg rather long, forming
a powerful instrument for scratching away the loose sand, which those
who have watched them say they throw up in a complete shower when
digging their holes.

We had been standing on for some time to the west, a cast of the lead
showing us that we were in fifty fathoms--the shallow sea