THE BRUSH TURKEY (Catheturus Lathami).
The BRUSH TURKEYS (Catheturus) are recognisable by their powerful frame, moderate-sized neck, large head, short rounded wings, and tail of medium length, composed of eighteen feathers; their soft woolly down, and a slight hairy growth on the head and neck. The fore part of the throat exhibits a long fleshy excrescence. These remarkable birds are natives of Australia.
THE BRUSH TURKEY, OR WATTLED TALLEGALLUS.
The BRUSH TURKEY, or WATTLED TALLEGALLUS (Catheturus, or Tallegallus Lathami), is of a beautiful chocolate-brown on the upper portions of the body, and light brown on the under side, which is marked with silver-grey. The eye is light brown, the wattle bright yellow, the beak lead-grey, and the foot light reddish brown. The bare skin on the head and neck is scarlet. This species is two feet and a half long; the wing measures twelve inches, and the tail nine inches and a half. The female closely resembles her mate.
"How far the range of the Wattled Tallegallus may extend," says Mr. Gould, "is not yet satisfactorily ascertained; it is known to inhabit various parts of New South Wales, from Cape Howe to Moreton Bay, and Mr. Macgillivray informed me that he had killed it as far up the east coast as Port Molle. The assaults of the cedar-cutters and others, who frequently hunt through the brushes of Illawarra and Maitland, had, however, nearly extirpated it from those localities when I visited the colony in 1838, and it probably does not now exist there; but I believe it is still plentiful in the dense and little-trodden brushes of the Manning and Clarence. I was at first led to believe the country between the mountain ranges and the coast constituted its sole habitat, but I was agreeably surprised when I found it in the Liverpool brushes and in the scrubby gullies and sides of the lower hills that branch off towards the interior.
"It has often been asserted that Australia abounds in anomalies, and in no instance is the truth of this assertion more fully exemplified than in the history of this very singular bird, respecting the situation of which in the natural system much diversity of opinion, as above noticed, has hitherto prevailed. It was consequently one of the birds which demanded my utmost attention during my visit to Australia.
"The most remarkable circumstance connected with the economy of this species is the fact of its eggs not being incubated in the manner of other birds. At the commencement of the spring the Wattled Tallegallus scratches together an immense heap of decaying matter as a depository for the eggs, and trusts to the heat developed by the process of fermentation for the development of the young. The heap employed for this purpose is collected by the birds during several weeks previous to the period of laying; it varies in size from two to many cartloads, and in most instances is of a pyramidal form. The construction of the mound is either the work of one pair of birds, or, as some suppose, of the united labours of several; the same site appears to be resorted to for several years in succession, the birds adding a fresh supply of materials each succeeding season.
"The materials composing these mounds are accumulated by the bird grasping a quantity in its foot, and throwing it backwards to a common centre, the surface of the ground for a considerable distance being so completely scratched over that scarcely a leaf or blade of grass is left. The mound being completed, and time being left for sufficient heat to be engendered, the eggs are deposited in a circle at the distance of nine or twelve inches from each other, and buried more than an arm's depth, with the large end upwards; they are covered up as they are laid, and allowed to remain until they are hatched. I have been credibly informed, both by natives and settlers living near their haunts, that it is not unusual to obtain half a bushel of eggs at a time from a single mound, and I have myself seen a native woman bring to the encampment in her net half that quantity, as the spoils of a foraging excursion to the neighbouring scrub. Some of the natives state that the females are constantly in the neighbourhood of the mound about the time the young are likely to be hatched, and frequently uncover and cover them up again, apparently for the purpose of assisting those that may have appeared, while others have informed me that the eggs are merely deposited and the young allowed to force their way unassisted. One point has been clearly ascertained, namely, that the young, from the hour that they are hatched, are clothed with feathers, and have their wings sufficiently developed to enable them to fly on to the branches of trees, should they need to do so to escape from danger. They are equally nimble on their legs; in fact, as a moth emerges from a chrysalis, dries its wings, and flies away, so the youthful Tallegallus, when it leaves the egg, is sufficiently perfect to be able to act independently and procure its own food.