Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-07-27

Marvellous Mounds Built by the Malice
Hens of Australia.
The malice hen of Australia lays its
eggs in q huge nest. The nest Is really
an artificial mound of gigantic proper.
tions for the size Of it's maker and the
purpose II is to serve. This artificial
mound is a cooperative incubator. 1t
is built by many pairs Of birds, male
and female working alike to construct
It. These same pairs Of hocks Of birds
annually repair and enlarge the queer
looking cone, which rises up like tur-
ret dome from the level prairies.
Sometimes these tunnels attain a
height of fully fifteen feet in the PER
pendicular, with a radius of equal
measurement. Many Of these nests
have measured rs much as fifty yards,
or 100 feet. around their base. That
would give the largest one measured
diameter Of about fifty feet. These
mound nests are entered through sort
of tunnel cavity at the top of the cone.
The hens Of all the building and re-
pairing pairs lay In this immense nest.
The eggs are deposited about six feet
below the surface. While each hen lays
her eggs in the family mound. no hen
drops her egg closer than twenty inches
to that of her neighbor. Each egg Is
deposited Ia q cavity made for II,
wherein 1t is placed in a vertical posi-
ton, carefully covered, and the sur
face 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 dropping Of two
eggs by the same hen.
The eggs of the malice hen are out OF
all proportion to her size. They arc as
large Ms 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 districts
are never again disturbed by the hens.
The eggs are Matched by the heat the
sun bakes into the soil where they lay.
1t has never been known how the
young chicks are eXcavated from their
egg grave, for the eggs are deposited
fully six feet below the surface, and the
hardening rains do not aid their exit
very much.
The hen Is SO very shy and vigilant
that no one Is able to study her ma
ternal and domestic habits with salts
faction. As she lays her eggs 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 parental 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 seen
working at It and the mounds have
been inspected, but the piling Of the
dirt Is not from the Immediate vicinity,
for that is undisturbed. Small sprigs
and the like enter into the plastic ma
sonry, which stands storms and heavy
rains, when they do fall, without serl-
Gus injury.
These huge cones stand for years, to
be annually nested in by the same flock
which originally constructed the fam
lily incubator. When detected the hens
emit a pitlful 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 q friendly color.