1922.] Mound-building Birds of Australia. 705 _of the future mound, Mr. G. H. Mann writes me, 10 March, 1922, that “ From my observations it seems that they scratch out a hole early in the winter and then fill it up witha cone-shaped heap of dry leaves and sticks: these they cover with sand about the end of the winter.”

These sticks and leaves ultimately become largely intermixed with the sand, but the leaves and twigs are mostly below the eggs. Most of the mounds in the belt of Mallee before referred to, Were when finished nine feet to twelve feet across, with a depression in the middle, and raised about two feet above the normal level of the ground. Mr. J. &. Lewis Machell, of the Education Department in Adelaide, furnished me with some very valuable observations in a letter dated 4 March, 1922; I give them in full. ‘‘ I am forwarding the answers to your queries re Mallee-Fowl. These are simply notes and observations made by me during 1914, together with a photograph taken at Murray Bridge in January last. Nest, fifteen feet in diameter and about two feet six inches high, situated in an open space in a scrub of so-calied ‘broom’ with occasional Mallee: soil sandy. Composition of nesting-mound, central portion decaying leaves and vegetation covered with sand. There is a depression in the centre, and eggs are laid around the rim of this hollow. Before making the nest a small hollow is scraped out ; the one I mentioned was only about five inches deep and two feet six inches wide, and was filled with leaves and twigs. The eggs did not appear to be laid down as far as the leaves. Many were standing on end, but not all. I may have disturbed them when opening up the nest. The sand was fairly dry where the eggs were, but not as dry as in other parts of the nest. Foxes robbed the nests as fast as the eggs were laid (note fox-tracks on mound in photograph). In 1914 I had the pleasure of watching the birds at work, but it meant lying hidden from 6 o’clock in the morning until 10 o'clock. I could hear the birds moving around, but they did not appear. About 10 a.m. (when the sun was shining directly on the nest), the male and female appeared on the mound, The female stayed, but the male disappeared