Cassell's book of birds; vol. 3

by Alfred Edmund Brehm

"Arrived at our destination, we built a hut, and prepared for a stay of some days, I to shoot and skin Maleos. The place is situated in the large bay between the islands of Limbé and Banca, and consists of a steep beach more than a mile in length, of deep, loose, and coarse black volcanic sand, or rather gravel, very fatiguing to walk over. It is in this loose black sand that those singular birds, the Maleos, deposit their eggs.

"Every year the natives come for fifty miles round to obtain these eggs, which are esteemed a great delicacy, and when quite fresh are indeed delicious. They are richer than Hens' eggs, and of a finer flavour, each one completely fills an ordinary tea-cup, and forms, with bread or rice, a very good meal. The colour of the shell is a pale brick-red, or very rarely pure white. They are elongate, and very slightly smaller at one end, from four to four and a half inches long, by two and a quarter and two and a half wide."

THE MALEO (Megacephalon Maleo), ONE-FOURTH NATURAL SIZE.

After the eggs are deposited in the sand they are no further cared for by the mother. The young birds on breaking the shell, work their way up through the sand, and run off at once to the forest. "I was assured by Mr. Duivenfoden, of Ternate," says Wallace, "that they can fly the very day they are hatched. He had taken some eggs on board his schooner which were hatched during the night, and in the morning the little birds flew readily across the cabin. Considering the great distances the hens come to deposit the eggs in a proper situation (often ten or fifteen miles), it seems extraordinary that they should take no further care of them. It is, however, quite certain that they neither do nor can watch them. The eggs being deposited by a number of hens in succession in the same hole would render it impossible for each to distinguish its own, and the food necessary for such large birds, consisting entirely of fallen fruits, can only be obtained by roaming over an extensive district; so that if the numbers which come down to this single beach in the breeding season, amounting to many hundreds, were obliged to remain in the vicinity, many would perish of hunger." In the structure of the feet of this bird we may detect a cause for its departing from the habits of its nearest allies, the Megapodii and Tallegalli, which heap up earth, leaves, stones, and sticks into a large mound, wherein they bury their eggs. The feet of the Maleo are not nearly so large or strong in proportion as in these birds, while its claws are short and straight instead of being long and curved. The toes are, however, strongly webbed at the base, forming a broad powerful foot, this, with the rather long leg, is well adapted to scratch away the loose sand (which flies up in a perfect shower when the birds are at work), but they could not, without much labour, accumulate the heaps of miscellaneous rubbish brought together by the large grasping feet of the Megapodius.

THE OCELLATED LEIPOA.

The OCELLATED LEIPOA (Leipoa ocellata) has a slender body and a broad rounded wing, in which the second quill exceeds the rest in length; the tail, formed of fourteen feathers, is long, broad, and much rounded; the powerful foot is high, the beak comparatively small and straight. The colour of the head and crest is blackish brown, of the neck and shoulders dark ash-grey; the fore part of the former, from the chin to the breast, is marked by a series of lanceolate feathers, which are black, with a white stripe down the centre; the back and wings are conspicuously marked with three distinct bands of greyish white, brown, and black; near the tip of each feather the marks assume an ocellate form, particularly on the tips of the secondaries. The primaries are brown, their outer webs marked with zigzag lines of darker brown; the rump and upper tail-covers are brownish grey, the feathers of the latter transversely marked with two or three zigzag lines near their tip; all the under surface is light buff; the tips of the flank-feathers are barred with black; the tail is blackish brown, broadly tipped with buff; the bill black, and the foot blackish brown.

"The Ocellated Leipoa," says Gould, "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." The following sketches of its economy, so far as it has yet been ascertained, were given me by Gilbert and Sir George Grey, and are here reproduced in their own words:—

"Wongan Hills, Western Australia, September 28, 1842.

"This morning I had the good fortune to penetrate into the dense thicket I had so long been anxious to visit in search of the Leipoa's eggs, and had not proceeded far before the native who was with me told me to keep a good look out, as we were among the Ngou-oo's hillocks; and in half an hour after, we found one, around which the brush was so thick that we were almost running over it before seeing it. So anxious was I to see the hidden treasures within that, in my haste, I threw aside the black fellow and began scraping off the upper part of the mound; this did not please him at all, and he became very indignant, at the same time making me understand that as I had never seen this nest before, I had better trust him to get out the eggs, or I should, in my haste and impatience, certainly break them. I therefore let him have his own way, and he began scraping off the earth very carefully from the centre, throwing it over the side, so that the mound very soon presented the appearance of a huge basin. About two feet in depth of earth was in this way thrown off, when the large ends of two eggs met my anxious gaze; both these eggs were resting on their smaller apex, and the earth round them had to be very carefully removed to avoid breaking the shell, which is extremely fragile when first exposed to the atmosphere. About a hundred yards from this first mound, we came upon a second, rather larger, of the same external form and appearance; it contained three eggs. Although we saw seven or eight more mounds, only these two contained eggs: we were too early; a week later and we should doubtless have found many more. To give you an idea of the place these birds choose for their remarkable mode of rearing their young, I will describe it as nearly as I can.