In a wild state, it is asserted that the Pintado associates in large flocks. Dampier speaks of having seen between two and three hundred of them together in the Cape de Verd Islands. They were originally introduced into our country from the coast of Africa somewhat earlier than the year 1260.
In Jamaica, where they have run wild, and become very destructive to the plantations, they are sometimes caught, Mr. Gosse tells us, by the following stratagem:—A small quantity of corn is steeped for a night in proof rum and is then placed in a shallow vessel, with a little fresh rum, and the water expressed from a bitter cassava grated. This is deposited within an enclosed ground to which the depredators resort. A small quantity of the grated cassava is then strewed over it, and it is left. The fowls eat the medicated food greedily, and are soon found reeling about intoxicated, unable to escape, and content with thrusting their heads into a corner. It is almost unnecessary to observe that in this state they become an easy prey. Pigeons are sometimes caught in this manner in Germany by the poachers.
This bird has, of late years, greatly increased in this country, and is often seen hanging at the poultry shops and in the markets; the great abundance of them has considerably reduced their value, and they now sell, proportionally, like other fowls. The eggs are smaller and rounder than those of the common hen, and of a speckled reddish-brown colour. They are esteemed a very delicate food.
THE MOUND-BIRD OF AUSTRALIA.
(Megapodius tumulus.)
It is remarkable that this bird does not hatch its eggs by incubation. It collects together a great heap of decaying vegetables as the place of deposit of its eggs, thus making a hotbed, arising from the decomposition of the collected matter, by the heat of which the young are hatched. This mound varies in quantity from two to four cart-loads, and is not the work of a single pair of birds, but is the result of the united labour of many.