706 Mr. Edwin Ashby on the [ Ibis, into the scrub again to do sentry-go. Well, Mrs. Mallee-Fowl began to open out the egg-chamber; every few minutes she would pause and appeared to settle her neck and breast against the sides of the egg-chamber. The sand was cleared away until there was about an inch left covering the eggs, then the male joined her and both disappeared. On visiting the nest at 4 p.m. (the shadows ‘were Just on the nest), I found that the sand had been replaced.”

‘“T repeated this observation the following day andagain a week later, and the sand was always replaced before the shadows fell on the nest.”

Mr. T. P. Bellchambers of South Australia wrote me on 7 March, 1922, as follows:—‘ All covering material is mixed with desiccated leaves. For sunning purposes, 7. é.

‘solar heat,’ the nest is opened almost to the level of the eggs—this may be done as often as five days out of seven.

The refilling is a gradual process and takes all day, as it is replaced in layers as soon as it gets hot. The male does all the hard graft, grasps and throws all the material behind him.”

It will be seen that, while on the important point, the utilization of solar heat, all the three observers quoted above are in agreement, Mr. Mann adds “ I do know that they (the Mallee-Fowl) open out the nests mostly in the morning, but have the impression that they are not long left open”— the depth of the initial excavation varies somewhat.

In the example that came under my personal observation, the excavation was considerably deeper than was the case with the nest examined by Mr. Machell; we may therefore conclude that this varies with the depth of the sand and the nature of the soil. Again, while Mr. Bellechambers only quotes the male as doing the filling work, Mr. Machell records the work as done by the female. Some differences may be due to the fact that Mr. Bellchambers’s birds are in semi-captivity.

I think we may conclude that, while this work may probably be largely undertaken by the male, both sexes share therein. Mr. Machell’s observation of the bird pressing