the lanceolated honey eater chooses for the site of its pendulous dwelling the thinnest twigs which grow at the summit of the enormous gum trees; where, owing to the great height at which it is placed and the surrounding leaves, even the eagle eye of the native australian can with difficulty detect it; while the white throated honey eater (entomophila albogularis), detesting the wind, loves to frequent the dense mangrove thickets which edge the bays and creeks. in these places, often scarcely two feet from the water, and invariably so placed as to be under the protection of a spray of leaves, may be found its curious nest, which is about as large as a breakfast cup, and very much the same shape.
371
swallow dicæum.
besides the honey eaters, australia has many other expert nest-builders, such as the rock warbler (origma rubricata), which suspends its nest from the rocks in sheltered places, wherever an overhanging ledge affords protection from the elements; the sericornis citreogularis, which constructs its dwelling in the centre of the large masses of moss which in the australian forests often accumulate at the extremities of drooping branches, and the brilliantly coloured swallow dicæum (dicæum hirundinaceum), which hangs its pretty nest from the tops of the tallest casuarinas, where its minute body can scarcely be seen without the assistance of glasses; but nothing can be more extraordinary than the constructions of the bower birds, which are built not for the useful purpose of containing the young, but purely as a playing place or an assembly room.
372 ‘the structures of the spotted bower bird,’ says mr. gould, ‘are in many instances three feet in length. they are outwardly built of twigs, and beautifully lined with tall grasses, so disposed that their heads nearly meet; the decorations are very profuse, and consist of bivalve shells, crania of small mammalia, and other birds. evident and beautiful indications of design are manifest throughout the whole of the bower and decorations formed by this species, particularly in the manner in which the stones are placed within the bower, apparently to keep the grasses with which it is lined fixed firmly in their places. these stones diverge from the mouth of the run on each side, so as to form a little path, while the immense collection of decorative materials, bones, shells, &c., are placed in a heap before the entrance of the avenue, this arrangement being the same at both ends. i frequently found these structures at a considerable distance from the rivers, from the borders of which they alone could have procured the shells and small round pebbly stones; their collection and transportation must, therefore, be a task of great labour and difficulty. as these birds feed almost entirely upon seeds and fruits, the shells and bones cannot have been collected for any other purpose than ornament; besides, it is only those that have been bleached perfectly white in the sun, or such as have been roasted by the natives, and by this means whitened, that attract their attention.’ for what purpose these curious bowers are made is not yet, perhaps, fully understood; they are certainly not used as a nest, but as a place of resort, where the assembled birds run through and about the bower in a playful manner, and that so frequently that it is seldom entirely deserted.
lathami talegalla.
the talegalla or brush-turkey is a no less interesting australian bird. in appearance it is very like the common black turkey, but is not quite so large: the extraordinary manner in which its eggs are hatched constitutes its singularity. it collects together a great heap of decaying vegetables as the place of deposit of its eggs, thus making a hot-bed, arising from the decomposition of the collected matter, by the heat of which the young are373 hatched. this mound varies in quantity from two to four cartloads, and is of a perfectly pyramidical form: it is not, however, the work of a single pair of birds, but the result of the united labour of many, and the same site appears to be resorted to for several years in succession. ‘the mode,’ says mr. gould, ‘in which the materials composing these mounds are accumulated is equally singular, the bird never using its bill, but always grasping a quantity in its foot, throwing it backwards to one common centre, and thus clearing the surface of the ground to a considerable distance so completely that scarcely a leaf or blade of grass is left.’ the heap being accumulated and time allowed for a sufficient heat to be engendered, the eggs, each measuring not less than four inches in length—an enormous size, considering the bulk of the bird—are deposited, not side by side, as is ordinarily the case, but planted at the distance of nine or twelve inches from each other, and buried at nearly an arm’s depth perfectly upright, with the large end upwards; they are covered up as they are laid, and allowed to remain until hatched. after six weeks of burial, the eggs, in succession and without any warning, give up their chicks—not feeble, but full-fledged and strong, so that at night they scrape holes for themselves, and lying down therein are covered over by the old birds and thus remain until morning. the extraordinary strength of the newly-hatched birds is accounted for by the size of the shell, since in so large a space it is reasonable to suppose that the young ones would be much more developed than is usually found in eggs of smaller dimensions. other australian birds, such as the jungle-fowl (megapodius tumulus), duperrey’s megapodius (m. duperreyii), which inhabits the forests of new guinea, and the leipoas or native pheasants, construct similar mound-like nests. those of the jungle-fowl, observed at port essington, are described as fifteen feet high, and sixty in circumference at the base, and so enveloped in thickly foliaged trees as to preclude the possibility of the sun’s rays reaching any part of it.
the tropical forests of the eastern hemisphere resound with bird-cries no less appalling, wild, or strange than those of the western world. in the close jungles of ceylon one occasionally hears the call of the copper-smith (megalasara indica), whose374 din resembles the blows of a smith hammering a cauldron, or the strokes of the great orange-coloured woodpecker (brachypterus aurantius), as it beats the decaying trees in search of insects; but of all the yells that fancy can imagine there is none to equal that of the singhalese devil-bird or gualama. ‘its ordinary cry,’ says mr. mitford, ‘is a magnificent clear shout like that of a human being, which can be heard at a great distance, and has a fine effect in the silence of the closing night. it has another cry like that of a hen just caught, but the sounds which have earned for it its bad name, and which i have heard but once to perfection, are indescribable; the most appalling that can be imagined, and scarcely to be heard without shuddering. i can only compare it to a boy in torture, whose screams are being stopped by being strangled. on hearing this dreadful note the terrified singhalese hurries from the spot, for should he chance to see the bird of ill omen he knows that his death is nigh. a servant of mr. baker’s,32 who had the misfortune of seeing the dreaded gualama, from that moment took no food, and thus fell a victim to his superstitious despair. this horror of the natives explains the circumstance that it is not yet perfectly ascertained whether the devil-bird is an owl (syrnium) or a night hawk.
as if to make amends for this screech, the robin of nueraellia, the long-tailed thrush, the oriole, the dayal-bird, and some others equally charming, make the forests and savannas of the kandyan country resound with the rich tones of their musical calls.
besides the vast number of birds which, constantly attached to a sultry climate, breed and live within the tropics, there are others who at the approach of winter leave the uncongenial regions of the temperate or frigid zones, and in search of food and warmth migrate towards the equatorial world. thus our house swallow annually wanders as far as the unknown heart of africa, resting neither in egypt nor in nubia, nor even in the insect-teeming steppes and woods of eastern sudan, and the stork, who every spring appears as a welcome guest in the lowlands of northern germany, has frequently spent the previous winter months in south nubia and darfur. in kordofan (16°375 35 n. lat.) the naturalist hears with astonishment the dactylic note of the quail, which may have sounded in summer in great britain or sweden, or meets with our charming songster the nightingale, who, likewise, wings his flight towards unknown regions, far beyond the tropics, where however his voice is mute.
