mound-bird

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

n.


the jungle-hen of Australia.The birds scratch up heaps of soil and vegetable matter, inwhich they bury their eggs and leave them to be hatched by theheat of decomposition. Scientifically called megapodes (q.v.).

1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia,' vol. i. p. 76:

«Next to these, as a special Australian type. . . . comethe bush-turkeys or mound-makers . . . all these birds havethe curious reptilian character of never sitting on their eggs,which they bury under mounds of earth or decaying vegetablematter, allowing them to be hatched by the heat of the sun,or that produced by fermentation.»

Related Words