The mode in which these and other eggs are cooked by the blacks is to roll them up in two or three large leaves, and roast them in the ashes; the eggs burst, of course, but the leaves prevent the contents from escaping.

Both bird and eggs are excellent eating; the latter, averaging three and a half inches in length, of a pure white colour, are deposited in low mounds of earth and leaves in the dense brushes in a similar manner to those of the megapodius, and are easily dug out with the hand.

I have seen three or four taken out of one mound where they were arranged in a large circle, a foot and a half from the surface.

The laying bird carefully effaces any mark she may have made in scooping out a place for the eggs, but the keen eye of a native quickly detects the slightest sign of recent disturbance of the mound, and he seldom fails to hit upon the eggs.
SEASONS.
As at Port Essington, the year at Cape York is divided into two seasons,* the dry and the rainy.

From personal observation and other sources of information, it would appear that the limits and duration of these admit of so much variation that it is impossible to determine with certainty, even within a month, when one ceases and the other begins.