Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
making them. They run a few steps backwards, grasping a quantity of loose material in one
foot, and throw it a long way behind them. When once properly buried the eggs seem to be
no more cared for, the young birds working their way up through the heap of rubbish, and
running off at once into the forest. They come out of the egg covered with thick downy
feathers, and have no tail, although the wings are fully developed.
I was so fortunate as to discover a new species (Megapodius wallacei), which inhabits
Gilolo, Ternate, and Bouru. It is the handsomest bird of the genus, being richly banded with
reddish brown on the back and wings; and it differs from the other species in its habits. It
frequents the forests of the interior, and comes down to the sea-beach to deposit its eggs, but
instead of making a mound, or scratching a hole to receive them, it burrows into the sand to
the depth of about three feet obliquely downwards, and deposits its eggs at the bottom. It
then loosely covers up the mouth of the hole, and is said by the natives to obliterate and dis-
guise its own footmarks leading to and from the hole, by making many other tracks and
scratches in the neighbourhood. It lays its eggs only at night, and at Bouru a bird was caught
early one morning as it was coming out of its hole, in which several eggs were found. All
these birds seem to be semi-nocturnal, for their loud wailing cries may be constantly heard
late into the night and long before daybreak in the morning. The eggs are all of a rusty red
colour, and very large for the size of the bird, being generally three or three and a quarter
inches long, by two or two and a quarter wide. They are very good eating, and are much
sought after by the natives.
Another large and extraordinary bird is the Cassowary, which inhabits the island of
Ceram only. It is a stout and strong bird, standing five or six feet high, and covered with
long coarse black hair-like feathers. The head is ornamented with a large horny casque or
helmet, and the bare skin of the neck is conspicuous with bright blue and red colours. The
wings are quite absent, and are replaced by a group of horny black spines like blunt porcu-
pine quills. These birds wander about the vast mountainous forests that cover the island of
Ceram, feeding chiefly on fallen fruits, and on insects or crustacea. The female lays from
three to five large and beautifully shagreened green eggs upon a bed of leaves, the male and
female sitting upon them alternately for about a month. This bird is the helmeted cassowary
(Casuarius galeatus) of naturalists, and was for a long time the only species known. Others
have since been discovered in New Guinea, New Britain, and North Australia.
It was in the Moluccas that I first discovered undoubted cases of 'mimicry' among birds,
and these are so curious that I must briefly describe them. It will be as well, however, first to
explain what is meant by mimicry in natural history. At
page 148
of this work, I have de-
scribed a butterfly which, when at rest, so closely resembles a dead leaf, that it thereby es-
