In a particularly rugged part of the
island is a mound almost completely walled in by immense boulders. In
such a situation the birds could hardly have found it possible to
accumulate by kicking and scratching so great a quantity of debris. The
material was not available on the site, and as the makers do not carry
their rubbish, it was puzzling to account for it all, until it was
noticed that the junction of two boulders with an inclination towards
each other formed a natural flume or shoot down which most of the
material of the mound had been sent. As the rains and use flatten the
apex fresh stuff is deposited with a trifling amount of labour, to afford
an illustration of "purposive conscious action."
The megapode seems to delight in flying in the face of laws to which
ordinary fowls are obedient. While making a law unto herself for the
incubation of eggs, she scandalously violates that which provides that
the size of the egg shall be in proportion to the size of the bird.
Though much less in weight than an average domestic fowl, the egg that
she lays equals nearly three of the fowl's. Comparisons between the egg
of the cassowary (one of the giants among birds) and of the common fowl
with that of the megapode, are highly complimentary to the latter.
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