Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/243

230 membrane clothed with small feathers. The head and neck are well feathered, except a naked space around the eye. The feet are large and strong, placed far backwards; the tarsus large, long, and covered with large scales; the hind toe resting wholly on the ground; the claws are very long and robust, flattened above, little curved, blunt at the point. The wings are rounded and hollow; the tail small, wedge-shaped; composed of twelve feathers.

The most interesting species known is that called by the colonists at Port Essington in North Australia, the Jungle-fowl (Megapodius tumulus, ), which is about as large as a common fowl. Its upper parts are of a bright red-brown; the tail blackish; the under parts dark grey; the head is furnished with a long recumbent crest. It is known to be spread over the Cobourg Peninsula, and will probably be found to range over the whole northern region of the Australian continent.

It is to the researches of Mr. John Gilbert that we are indebted for our knowledge of this singular bird's economy. On his arrival at Port Essington many great mounds of earth were pointed out to him, which were supposed by the colonists to be tumuli of the aborigines, but which the natives asserted to be formed by the Jungle-fowl, for the purpose of hatching its eggs. To ascertain the truth, Mr. Gilbert accompanied an intelligent native to an unfrequented spot of the coast, where he soon found a mound on the beach, composed of sand and shells, of a conical form, twenty feet in circumference at the base, and about five feet high. The native asserted