To Richard Owen    26 January 1863

(Private)

Melbourne bot. Garden

26/1/63.

My dear Professor Owen.

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your kind letter, dated 21. Nov. 1862,¹ the contents of which I communicated to Prof. McCoy. In a long conversation, which I had with him on the subject of the meteorite, he repeated to me, that whenever the Abelian specimen was secured he would at once concede to the removal of the larger one now at his Museum. The only fear, which I felt in regard to renewed difficulties being thrown in the way of our arrangements arose from the circumstances, that our excentric Mr. Abel of Ballarat might not feel himself bound to his contract beyond a certain period and that of such not at all unlikely event advantage might be taken by a number of people in this colony, who are extremely² anxious to retain the Brucean Meteorite in the colony and with whom I had already [some] public combat, as you will observe from one of the enclosed paragraphs.³ Hence arose my desire of seeing the Abelian specimen secured, and I am highly gratified to observe now, that the trustees of your great museum have acceded to the purchase.

I have obtained and dissected several Echidnae this season, but deplore to report, that it were either females not in pregnancy or males. How is it that in my almost endless wanderings in Australia I never saw a young Echidna less than half grown? Are the females when pregnant receding to the most secluded parts of the virgin forest, whence through the impenetrable underwood no one can follow them? — I shall however not cease to follow up this interesting investigation.⁴

It may not be uninteresting to you to learn, that the Crax alector produced young in the garden under my supervision. I kept a pair of these noble birds in one division of our aviary, which is of considerable dimensions & includes a number of smaller trees & good sized bushes left in the ground where they were originally planted. The aviary is thus not floored and to prevent the ingress of rats & other burrying animals galvanized iron is sunk along the base to the dept of several feet into the ground. The Curassows seemed to regard this place as very homely and in the beginning of the season the hen laid two eggs on the ground without having formed any nest and without making any attempt to hatch them. The eggs were brought under an ordinary domestic hen, which kept closely on them, but was not successful in her incubation. The Curassows however bethought themselfes that they could do better, and the violence of the cock bird, who flew at any one approaching, biting & fighting even the Keeper[s], manifested that some change was to take place in the domestic affairs of our Craxes and the hen commenced scrutinizing for a place of constructing a nest in the bushes, finally selecting a shrub of Buddleya Madagascariensis,⁵ which has rather flexil branches, for the purpose. The structure of the nest is very crude, it being formed roughly of straw & branchlets; it is moreover shallow, scarcely sheltered in any way so as to allow access of the sun and about 4' from the ground. Approximately three weeks after the first two eggs were laid, the hen brought forth two other eggs & kept on the nest closely to them, except during warm days whilst the sun was shining directly on the nest, when the eggs were left exposed for several hours. The male bird during this time & before showed a remarkable tenderness & solicitude for his mate, feeding her even when she might have helped herself just as well, and keeping a watchful lookout. Precisely five weeks after the commencement of the incubation two strong lively chickens broke through the shell of the eggs and, what must appear wonderful, were wandering lustily about with their mother on the same day. How they managed to reach the ground is quite an enigma to me; if, as I suppose, they descended the 4 feet on their own accord, it would evince a remarkable degree of muscular power in a gallinaceous bird a few hours after hatching. When first observed they were running on the ground of the aviary, carefully watched by their attentive mother, who calls them with a peculiar sound. The hen feeds her young with eggs, a little pollard and occasionally a little meat, and lately the latter commenced picking maize &c. At night both young and old perch on the branch of a shrub or tree. The male bird has become perfectly tame again and even shy, avoiding the hen and young birds as much as possible.

I have been rather diffuse on this subject, as I cannot find in a number of works consulted any record of a species of Crax having multiplied in captivity and am thus induced to believe that these remarks may pro[o]ve of some interest to you & other promoters of zoology.

With sentiments of highest regards I remain,

dear Professor, your attached

Ferd. Mueller.

Mr. James Bruce, the donor of the meteorite, leaves the colony for London per Agincourt next week. I shall have the pleasure of giving this Gentleman a few lines of introduction to you.⁶

Since writing these lines I observe in the Guide du jardin zoologique d'acclimation du Bois de Bologne of October 1861 that the Crax Alector was breeding at Lord Derby's Park at Knowsley. So my remarks will probably embody nothing new.⁷

Buddleya Madagascariensis