Part 43

The stomach is extremely muscular, and the crop of one dissected was filled with seeds, berries, and a few insects.

I have already alluded to its capability for domestication; and I have the gratification of adding, that a living specimen was in the possession of Mr. Alexander MacLeay for several years, during which it was mostly at large, and usually associated with the fowls in the poultry-yard. On my arrival at Sydney this venerable gentleman took me into his garden and showed me the bird, which, as if in its native woods, had for two successive years collected an immense mass of materials similar to those above described. The borders, lawn and shrubbery over which it was allowed to range presented an appearance as if regularly swept, from the bird having scratched to one common centre everything that lay upon the surface; the mound in this case was about three feet and a half high, and ten feet over. On placing my arm in it I found the heat to be about 90° or 95° Fahr. The bird itself was strutting about with a proud and majestic air, sometimes parading round the heap, at others perching on the top, and displaying its brilliantly coloured neck and wattle to the greatest advantage; this wattle it has the power of expanding and contracting at will; at one moment it is scarcely visible, while at another it is extremely prominent.

Before I left New South Wales Mr. MacLeay’s bird had met with an untimely end by falling into a tank or water-butt, occasioned, it was conjectured, by seeing the reflection of its own image in the water, and rushing forward to meet a supposed antagonist. On dissection this individual was found to be a male, thereby proving that the sexes are equally employed in forming the mound for the reception of the eggs.

After all the facts that have been stated, I trust it will be evident that its natural situation is among the Rasores, and that it forms one of a great family of birds peculiar to Australia and the Indian islands, of which Megapodius forms a part; and in confirmation of this view I may add, that the sternum has the two deep emarginations so truly characteristic of the Gallinaceæ; at all events, it is in no way allied to the Vulturidæ, and is nearly as far removed from Menura.

The adults have the whole of the upper surface, wings and tail blackish brown; the feathers of the under surface blackish brown at the base, becoming silvery grey at the tip; skin of the head and neck deep pink red, thinly sprinkled with short hair-like blackish brown feathers; wattle bright yellow, tinged with red where it unites with the red of the neck; bill black; irides and feet brown.

The female, which is about a fourth less than the male in size, is so closely the same in colour as to render a separate description unnecessary. She also possesses the wattle, but not to so great an extent.

The figure is about two-thirds the size of life.

LEIPOA OCELLATA: Gould. ]

LEIPOA OCELLATA, Gould. Ocellated Leipoa.

Leipoa ocellata, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., October 13, 1840.

Ngow, Aborigines of the lowland; Ng̏ow-oo, of the mountain districts of Western Australia.

Native Pheasant, Colonists of Western Australia.

This beautiful bird is among the most interesting of the novelties which the little-explored regions of Australia have lately unfolded to us; since, by its discovery, and a knowledge of its habits, we are enabled to assign to its proper family (the Megapodinæ) the singular species figured under the name of Talegalla Lathami.

The Ocellated Leipoa appears to be more peculiarly suited for a plain and open country than for the tangled brush; and it is most curious to observe how beautifully the means employed by Nature for the reproduction of the species is adapted to the situations it is destined to inhabit. A sketch of its economy, as far as it has yet been ascertained, has been sent me by Mr. John Gilbert, and is here given in his own words:

“The following account of the habits, manners, and nidification of this bird have been detailed to me by G. Moore, Esq., Advocate-General, Mr. Armstrong, the aboriginal interpreter, and some of the more intelligent natives of Western Australia. Mr. Moore saw a great many of them about sixty miles north of Perth; but its most favourite country appears to be the barren sandy plains of the interior, 100 miles north and east of York. It is a ground bird, never taking to a tree except when closely hunted; when pursued it will frequently run its head into a bush, and is then easily taken. In its actions and manners it is very like the domestic fowl. Its food generally consists of seeds and berries. It has a mournful note, very like that of a pigeon, but with a more inward tone. The eggs are deposited in a mound of sand, the formation of which is the work of both sexes: the natives say they scratch up the sand for many yards around, forming a mound of about three feet in height; the inside being constructed of alternate layers of dried leaves, grasses, &c., among which the eggs are deposited to the number of twelve and upwards, and covered up by the birds as laid; or, as the natives express it, ‘the countenances of the eggs are never visible.’ The bird never sits upon the eggs; but when she has laid her number the whole are covered up, after which the mound of sand resembles an ant’s nest. The eggs are hatched by the heat of the sun’s rays, the vegetable lining of the hillock retaining sufficient warmth during the night: the eggs are deposited in layers, no two eggs being suffered to lie without a division. They are about the size of a fowl’s egg, and are white, very slightly tinged with red. The natives are exceedingly fond of them, and rob the mounds two or three times in a season; they judge of the probable number of eggs in the heap by the quantity of feathers lying around. If these are abundant, they know the hillock is full, when they immediately open it and take the whole; upon which the bird will again commence laying, to be robbed a second time, and will frequently lay a third time. Upon questioning one of the men attached to Mr. Moore’s expedition, he gave me a similar account of its habits and mode of incubating; adding that in all the mounds they opened they found ants almost as numerous as in an ant-hill, and that in many instances that part of the mound surrounding the lower portion of the eggs had become so hard, they were obliged to chip round them with a chisel to get them out: the insides of the mounds were always hot.”

Captain Grey, of the 83rd Regiment, who has just returned from his expedition to the north-west coast, has also furnished me with the following information respecting its range, &c.: “The farthest point north,” says this gentleman, “at which I have seen the breeding-places of this bird, is Gantheaume Bay. The natives of King George’s Sound say the same, or a nearly allied species, exists in that neighbourhood. I have never fallen in with its nests but in one description of country, viz. where the soil was dry and sandy, and so thickly wooded with a species of dwarf Leptospermum, that if you stray from the native paths, it is almost impossible to force your way through. In these close scrubby woods small open glades occasionally occur, and here the Ng̏ow-oo constructs its nest, a large heap of sand, dead grass and boughs, at least nine feet in diameter, and three feet in height: I have seen them even larger than this. Upon one occasion only I saw eggs in these nests; they were placed some distance from each other, and buried in the earth. I am not sure of the number, but the account given by the natives led me to believe that at times large numbers are found.”

The Ocellated Leipoa is altogether a more slender and elegantly formed bird than the Wattled Talegalla, and moreover differs from that bird in having the head and neck thickly clothed with feathers, and in being adorned with a beautifully variegated style of colouring.

Head and crest blackish brown; neck and shoulders dark ash grey; the fore part of the former, from the chin to the breast, marked by a series of lanceolate feathers, which are black with a white stripe down the centre; back and wings conspicuously marked with three distinct bands of greyish white, brown and black near the tip of each feather, the marks assuming an ocellate form, particularly on the tips of the secondaries; primaries brown, their outer webs marked with zigzag lines of darker brown; rump and upper tail-coverts brownish grey, the feathers of the latter transversely marked with two or three zigzag lines near their tip; all the under surface light buff, the tips of the flank feathers barred with black; tail blackish brown, broadly tipped with buff; bill black; feet blackish brown.

The figures are about two-thirds of the natural size.

MEGAPODIUS TUMULUS: Gould.

C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

MEGAPODIUS TUMULUS, Gould. Mound-raising Megapode.

Megapodius tumulus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 8, 1842.

Oooregoorgā, Aborigines of the Cobourg Peninsula.

Jungle-fowl, Colonists of Port Essington.

The discovery of a species of Megapodius in Australia, as soon as the northern portions of the country should be subjected to a careful investigation, is no more than might have been expected, considering that New Guinea and the adjacent islands are the great nursery of this extraordinary tribe of birds.

When the Megapodius Tumulus first came under my observation I conceived it to be the M. rubripes of M. Temminck, and it was not until I had examined specimens of that species in the Museums of Paris and Leyden that I was satisfied of its being distinct. 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 naturalist, to myself it is peculiarly so, since the valuable notes on its habits and economy which happily I am enabled to give fully confirm all that I had previously asserted respecting the extraordinary mode of incubation of the Talegalla, verifying the opinion I have before expressed, that Megapodius, 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.