Morris tribune., 1898-01-05
A GIGANTIC NEST.
A Great Gone Which the Australian Hens
Build For the Purpose of Matching.

= NreaG Gone Wnlcn the AUSTRALIAN Hens
Build For the Purpose of Matching.
The malice hen of Australia lays
its eggs in huge nest. The nest is
really an artificial mound Of gigan-
tic proportions for the size of its
maker and the purpose it is to serve
This artificial mound is a co-opera-
tion incubator 1t is built by many
pairs of birds, male and female
working alike to construct it. These
same pairs or f1ocks of birds annual
ly repair and enlarge the queer
looking cone which rises up like a
turret dome from the level prairie.
Sometimes these tunnels attain a
height of fully 3 feet in the perpen-
dicular, with a radius of equal
measurement. Many of these nests
have measured as much as so yards,
or $50 feet, around their base. That
would give the largest one measured
a diameter of about SO feet. These
mound nests are entered through a
sort of funnel cavity at the top of
the cone
The hens of all the building and
repairing pairs lay in this immense
nest. The eggs are deposited about
6 feet below the surface. While each
hen lays her egg in the family
mound, no hen drops her egg closer
than 90 inches to that of her
neighbor. This egg is deposited in
a cavity made for it, wherein it is
placed in vertical position, careful
ly smoothed over by the hen before
she quits the nest Contrary to the
usual practice of the bird and fowl
species, these malice hens lay at
night instead of in the day Several
days elapse also between the drop
ping of two eggs by the same hen.
The eggs of the malice hen are
out of all proportion to her size.
They are as large as those of a goose
and of large hens are very much
larger.
The eggs thus laid and covered in
this great sand oven in the hot dis
tricts are never again disturbed by
the hens. The eggs are Matched by
the heat the sun bakes into the soil
where they lay It has never been
known how the young chicks are
excavated from their egg grave, for
the eggs are deposited fully six
inches below the surface, and the
hardening rains do not aid their exit
very much.
The hen lis so very shy and vigi-
liant that no one is able to study her
maternal and domestic habits with
satisfaction. AS she lays her egg at
night and transacts most of her
affairs in the night watch so that no
naturalist or curious individual can
ferret her out, possibly she steals to
her expected brood under cover of
night also and gives them the pa
rental unearthing which they must
surely need after the piping of the |
eggshell
Bush naturalists have been curious
to know how this peculiar fowl
builds that nest. The birds have
been working at it, and the mounds
have been inspected, but the piling |
of the dirt is not from the immedi- |
ate vicinity, for that is undisturbed.
Small springs and the like enter into
the plastic masonry, which stands
storms and heavy rains, when they |
do fall, without serious injury.
These huge s stand for years,
to be annually nested in by the same
flock which originally constructed
the family incubator When detect
ed, the hens emit a pitiful little |
cackle and futter away like a
wounded innocent The young of a
covey either root under the sand or
hide behind some mound or object
of friendly color. = Cleveland
Leader