Mound-birds

Mound-birds (Megapodidae), a family of galinaceous birds remarkable for the large mounds which they build as incubators for the eggs. They are natives of Australasia and of the islands in the Eastern Archipelago and Pacific. The Australian Megapodes (Megapodius tumulus), about the size of common fowls, build mounds of leaves, vegetable refuse, and soil, and add to them year after year until they become immense structures. The largest on record measured 150 feet in circumference. Both sexes work at the nest, in which the eggs are laid in separate holes at a depth of 5 or 6 feet, and left to be hatched by the warmth of the decomposing vegetable matter. The mound of the Nicobar species (M. nicobarensis) seems to be used not only by the original pair, but by their descendants as well. In a related genus, Leipoa, the eggs are laid separately in a circle in the centre of the mound, and then deeply covered up with compost. In the genus Tallegallus—represented by the large Brush-turkey (Tallegallus lathami) of Australia—the mounds are used socially by a number of birds.