The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-16
ANIMAL MOUND BUILDERS.

Some years ago sea captain who was
trading in the Celebes islands received, as
he was about to sail, basket which the
messenger said contained a few eggs which
he wished delivered at the next port. The
skipper placed the eggs i'm his cabin for
safety and thought no more about them
until one morning he heard a noise in the
basket. and to his amazement saw one of
the eggs break open and its occupant fly
across the cabin.
Later he learned that the bird was the
maleo, a pheasant-like creature that de-
posits its eggs in the volcanic sands of the
beach, allowing the sun to hatch them.
The young birds dig their way out and
are able to take care of themselves from
birth, and can fly Immediately to a limited
distance.
Closely related to the maleo is a group of
birds which can be very properly termed
the mound builders of bird life They are
the megapodes of New Guinea and Aus
tralia, the only birds that use incubators
to hatch their eggs. There are a num-
Der of species, but in general they resemble
small turkeys. with very large feet, and
found in the brush near the shore or
beach.
When the breeding season arrives both
sexes select a suitable place and proceed
to build mound of grass and vegetable
matter. This is accomplished by the birds
Selling the material in their large and
powerful claws and hurting it backward
The work of perhaps a score of birds so
accumulates, and a large-sized mound is
the result, and which when used year after
year often assumes striking proportions.
AS an example, some naturalists who
were travelling on the island of Nogo, in
Endeavor straits, were attracted by the
accounts of the natives of bird that made
mountains in which to hide it's eggs from
enemies BY offering to reward the natives
the travellers were taken to the mound of a
megapode, from which the guides trium-
phantly dug out several eggs. The mound
was, If not a mountain, small hill, and
measured $50 feet in circumference. and at
one end was fourteen feet in height, sloping
In one place twenty-four feet to the level
of the ground, which was scraped bare in
the vicinity. Another observed was twenty
five feet in length and five feet high.
The mounds are formed of vegetable mat
ter interspersed here and there with fine
gravel. decayed wood, and leaves, and are
artificial incubators. The birds dig hole
in the top, the eggs being deposited about
six feet from the surface, then covered up
and left to hatch by the heat generated in
the mass, whereupon the young scramble
out. and as a rule, look out for themselves
from BIRTH
The Nicobar megapode constructs sim
-
tralia is equally remarkable as mound
builder. In this instance several females
use the same nest, and as many as bas-
ketful of eggs have been taken from a
single mound. This bird is nearly as large
as a turkey. and resembles it.
Among the birds there are a number of
mound builders, among which the Tyre
bird. so remarkable for its ventriloquistic
powers may be included, forming a singu-
lar mound of sticks and brush. Upon one
occasion several naturalists visited the
islands on the Bahama banks, and came
upon a singular settlement Of mounds.
The latter were about thirty inches across.
and from one to three feet high. and looked
like stools or seats rising from the mud
They were moundlike nests Of the iamingo
A little bird found deep in the heart 81
Borneo. called the gardener bird. erects a
perfect mound apparently. three or -four
feet high which wonderful to rotate. &