New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-09-16
SUNDAY,
SEPTEMBER 10. 1900.
ANIMAL MOUND BUILDERS.
BIRDS WHO BUILD THEIR OWN INCU-
BATORS.
BY PROFESSOR CHARLES f HOLDER.

% sail a basket which the messenger said con I
Gained a few eggs which he wished delivered at /
she next port The skipper placed the eggs in /
tis 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 |
O. pheasant-ike creature that deposits its eggs
N the volcanic sands of the beach. allowing the
SIN 10 hatch them. The young birds dig their |
WAY our and able to take care Of them |
ssves from birth. and can fly Immediately to a |
limited distance.
Closely related to the maleo is a group Of
birds which can be properly termed the mound |
builders Of bird life. They are the megapodes !
of New-Guinea and Australia, the only birds
that use incubators to hatch their eggs There !
ere a number Of species, but in general they re- !
senbe small turkeys with large feet. and are
found in the brush near the shore or beach
When the breeding season arrives both sexes
select a suitable place and proceed to build a
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 which when used year after year, often
assumes striking proportions.
example, some naIuTallStS who were
travelling on the island Of Nogo in Endeavor
Straits. were attracted ny the accounts Of the
natives Of q bird that made mountains in which
10 hide its eggs from enemies. BY offering to
reward the natives the travellers We're taken
70 the mound Of a megapode, from which the
guides triumphantly dug out several eggs. The
mound was. If not a mountain, small hill, and
measured one hundred and fifty feet in circum-
ference and at one end was fourteen feet in
height sloping in one place twenty-four feet
10 The level Of the ground which was scraped
bare in the neighborhood. Another observed
was twenty-five feet in length and FIVE feet high.
THE EGGS BURIED DEEP.
The mounds are formed Of vegetable matter.
interspersed here and there with fine gravel de-
cayed wood and leaves and are artificial in
cubators. The birds dig a hole ia 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 cut for
themselves from birth.
The Niccbar negapode constructs a similar
mound while the talesallus, Of Australia, is
equally remarkable as a mound builder In
this instance several females use the same rest,
and as many as a basketful Of eggs have been
taken from single mound. This bird is nearly
as large as turkey and resembles 1t.
Among the birds there are a number Of mound
builders. among which the Tyre bird, so remark
able for its ventriloquisttc powers. may he IN
Guided, forming a singular mound Of sticks and
brush. Upon che occasion several naturalsts
visited the small Islands on the Bahama banks
and came upon a curious settlement OF mounds.
The latter were about thirty inches across and
from one 70 three feet high. and looked like
stools or seats rising from The mud. They were
the moundike nests OF the famingo
Ift+le bird found deer, in baar+ Of T1Orpao
called the gardener bird, erects a perfect mound
apparently, three CT four feet high, which, wen
derful 10 relate. Is hollow. the bird is bu- little
larger than a roblo and builds this mound Of
green twigs simply a pleasure house. It's
eggs being deposited IN a nes- not far distant.
In travelling over The prairies of Illinois sew
eral years ago 1 noticed singular mounds here
and there IN what was comparatively dry land.
So numerous we're they that they made the
surrounding country appear as though pillows
had passed over II. giving it undulatIng
shape. Upon investigation found that these
mound builders were little crayfish that pene-
trated the soil il every direction from the neigh
boring brooks the mounds being startling evil
dences OF their industry.
Once, IN polling my boa- along ! the ST. Law
renee River, in water seven feet deep I came
upon d mound Of stones from two TO three
Inches in diameter that rose to within two feet
OF The surface; near, IN fact that / reached
over and lifted some Of the pebbles from the
TOP Of the heap. At first glance the mound
looked Ike a CARLOAD Of stones that had been
tipped over from some steamer, or. had not
the water been shallow might we'll have passed
for cinders thrown from passing vessel. But
lhe stones were all selected pebbles and Of the
same general size. = little further along the
snore ! found another mound in shallow water,
and IN the course Of a month located several.
THE HANDICRAFT OF FISH
These mounds proved 10 be the work Of fishes
semotilus). Year after year they toiled at the
mound. piling I'D the stones and bringing them
II their mouths. in many instances from not a
h1'ie distance. 1 estimated each Of these mounds
70 be over a ton in weight In shape they were
csPelike the fishes evidently dropping the stones
always from above, so that they rolled down,
forming the shape desired. In succeeding sea
sons they had built the mounds TO the surface
u me water, or near ii that during tire winter
NE stones We're frozen in the ice and in the
spring, when the ice melted, many Of the top
layer We're carried away
Inc mounds were the nests Of the dishes, many
" them depOsting their eggs n than, which
~eIe washed in the interStices Of the mound,
Shelter
Equally remarkable are the moundlike struct-
1les OF lamprey cells. One observed in the Saco
RIVER was u feet IN length and feet in height.
~ was formed Of stones, but Of larger size than
~ me case Of the ST. Lawrence River mounds.
us accumulation was for a similar purpose;
SHo IN contempla ting II one wonders how the
sn-4aers could accomplish so much. In remov-
-e tne stones the cells attached their suckerlike
ouths 10 them. and rising with wrigglng
t tLo from the bottom allowed the current Of
NC strearn TO carry them along far II
g1c before they dropped then the upward
.--esIing motion was repeated. until finally the
he M