"The Wongan Hills are about 1,300 feet above the level of the sea, in a north-north-east direction from Drummond's House in the Toodyay. Their sides are thickly clothed with a dense forest of Eucalypti, and at their base is a thicket, extending for several miles, of upright-growing and thick bushy plants, so high in most parts that we could not see over their tops, and so dense that if we only separated for a few yards we were obliged to 'cooey' to prevent our straying from each other. This thicket is again shadowed by a very curious species of dwarf Eucalyptus, bearing yellow blossoms, and growing from fifteen to thirty feet in height, known to the natives as the spear-wood, and of which they make their spears, digging-sticks, dowaks, &c. The whole formation is a fine reddish iron-stone gravel, and this the Leipoa scratches up for several yards around, and thus forms its mound, to be afterwards converted into a hotbed for the reproduction of its offspring. The interior of the mound is composed of the finer particles of the gravel, mixed with vegetable matter, the fermentation of which produces a warmth sufficient for the purpose of hatching. Mr. Drummond, who had been for years accustomed to hotbeds in England, gave it as his opinion that the heat around the eggs was about 89°. In both the nests with eggs the White Ant was very numerous, making its little covered galleries of earth around and attached to the shell, thus showing a beautiful provision of Nature in preparing the necessary tender food for the young bird on its emergence. One of the eggs I have preserved shows the White Ant's tracks most beautifully. The largest mound I saw, and which appeared as if in a state of preparation for eggs, measured forty-five feet in circumference, and, if round in proportion on the top, would have been fully five feet in height. I remarked that in all the mounds not ready for the reception of eggs the inside or vegetable portion was always wet and cold; and I imagine from the state of the others that the bird turns out the whole of the materials to dry before depositing its eggs and covering them up with the soil. In both cases where I found eggs, the upper part of the mound was perfectly and smoothly rounded over, so that any one passing it without knowing the singular habit of the bird might very readily suppose it to be an ant-hill. Mounds in this state always contain eggs within, while those without eggs are not only not rounded over, but have the centres so scooped out that they form a hollow. The eggs are laid directly in the centre, all at the same depth, separated only by about three inches of earth, and so placed as to form a circle. I regret we were so early. Had we been a week later, the probability is I should have found the circle of eggs complete. Is it not singular that all the eggs were equally fresh, as if their development was arrested until the full number were deposited, so that the young might all appear at the same time? No one considering the immense size of the egg can suppose for a moment the bird capable of laying more than one without at least the intermission of a day, and perhaps even more. Like those of the Megapodius, they are covered with an epidermis-like coating, and are certainly as large, being three inches and three-quarters in length by two and a half in breadth. They vary in colour from a very light brown to a light salmon. During the whole day we did not succeed in obtaining sight of the bird, although we saw numerous tracks of its feet, and many places where it had been scratching. We also saw its tracks on the sand when crossing the dried beds of the swamps at least two miles from the breeding thicket, which proves that the bird in procuring its food does not confine itself to the bushes around its nest, but merely resorts to them for the purpose of incubating. The native informed us that the only chance of procuring the bird was by stationing ourselves in sight of the mound at a little distance, and remaining quiet and immovable till it made its appearance at sundown. This I attempted, and, with the native, encamped within twenty yards of the mound about an hour before sunset, taking precautions to conceal ourselves well with bushes from the quick eye of the bird, but leaving just an opening to get a fair sight with my gun. In a half-sitting, half-crouching position, I thus remained in breathless anxiety for the approach of the bird I had so long wished to see, not daring to move a muscle for fear of stirring a branch or making a noise by crushing a dead leaf, till I was so cramped that I could scarcely bear the pain in my limbs. The bird did not, however, make its appearance, and the native, with the fear of wading through the thicket in the darkness (for there was no moon), became so impatient that he started up and began to talk so loud and make so much noise that I was compelled to give up all hopes of seeing the bird that night. However, just as we were passing the mound we started the bird from the opposite side, but, from the denseness of the thicket and the darkness closing round us, I had no chance of getting a shot at it."
Sir George Grey completes the account given by Gilbert. He says, "I have lately returned from the Murray, where I have been studying the habits and manners of the Leipoa ocellata, which is very plentiful in the sandy districts of the scrub. Its food consists chiefly of insects, such as Phasmidæ and a species of Cimex. It also feeds on the seeds of various shrubs. It possesses the power of running with extraordinary rapidity; it roosts at night on trees, and never flies if it can avoid so doing.
"The mounds it constructs are from twelve to thirteen yards in circumference at the base, and from two to three feet in height, the general form being that of a dome. The sand and grass are sometimes scraped up for a distance of from fifteen to sixteen feet from its outer edge. The mound appears to be constructed as follows:—A nearly circular hole of about eighteen inches in diameter is scratched in the ground to the depth of seven or eight inches, and filled with dead leaves, dead grass, and similar materials; and a large mass of the same substance is placed all around it upon the ground. Over this first layer a large mound of sand, mixed with dried grass, &c., is thrown, and finally the whole assumes the form of a dome, as I have before stated.
"When an egg is to be deposited, the top is laid open, and a hole scraped in its centre, within two or three inches of the bottom of the layer of dead leaves. The egg is placed in the sand just at the edge of the hole, in a vertical position, with the smaller end downwards; the sand is then thrown in again, and the mound left in its original form. The egg which has thus been deposited is therefore completely surrounded and enveloped in soft sand, having from four to six inches of sand between the lower end of the egg and the layer of dead leaves. When a second egg is laid, it is deposited in precisely the same plane as the first, but at the opposite side of the hole before alluded to. When a third egg is laid, it is still placed in the same plane as the others, but, as it were, at the third corner of a square. When the fourth egg is laid, it is still placed in the same plane, but in the fourth corner of the square, or rather of the lozenge, the figure being of this form,
; the next four eggs in succession are placed in the interstices, but always on the same plane, so that at last there is a circle of eight eggs all standing upright in the sand, with several inches of sand intervening between each. The male bird assists the female in opening and covering up the mound, and, provided the birds are not themselves disturbed, the female continues to lay several eggs in the same mound, even after it has been several times robbed. The natives say that the females lay an egg every day. Eight is the greatest number I have heard of, from good authority, as having been found in one nest.
"The farthest point north at which I have seen the breeding-places of these birds is in Gantheaume Bay. The natives of King George's Sound say that the bird exists in their 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 paths it is almost impossible to force your way through."
Besides the above particulars, we have from Gould the following account, which he elicited by cross-examination of several natives:—"There is only one male and one female to each mound; they repair an old mound, and do not build a new one; both assist in scratching the sand to the nest. The female commences laying about the beginning of September, or when the spear-grass begins to shoot. Both sexes approach the nest together when the female is about to lay, and they take an equal share in the labour of covering and uncovering the mound. After every sunrise the female lays an egg, and lays altogether from eight to ten. If the natives rob the mound, the female will lay again in the same nest, but she will only lay the full number of eggs twice in one summer. From the commencement of building until the last eggs are hatched, four moons elapse—this would give a very long period of time before the eggs were hatched. The young one scratches its way out alone, the mother does not assist it. They usually come out one at a time, occasionally a pair appear together. The mother, who is feeding in the scrub in its vicinity, hears its call and runs to it; she then takes care of the young one as a European Hen does of its chick. When all are hatched, the mother is accompanied by eight or ten young ones, who remain with her until they are more than half grown. The male bird does not accompany them. The two sexes have different calls, that of the female is constantly uttered as she walks about the scrub with her young ones.
"The natives frequently find the nest and eggs, but they seldom see the old birds, as they are very timid and quick-sighted. They run very fast like the Emu, roost on trees, live for a long time without water, but drink when it rains. The Ocellated Leipoa is a remarkably stout compact bird, and appears when alive to have as large a body as the female Turkey, but it is shorter in the legs. Mr. Schomburghk states that an egg he took home and placed under a Domestic Hen was hatched the next day, and the young bird appeared covered with feathers, and capable of at once obtaining its own food."