By Tracey Mitchell, Keeper

• Thursday 18th June 1992: 0.1 Went immediately from hit without pit to one with when doors were opened at 8.30 am. Scraping took place.
  Taken out at around 9.30 am and placed on compost mound while hut was being cleaned. She wandered around the paddock for a while, but eventually went back to the pit again. At locking up time; 4.30 pm, was still in pit. She was placed on compost mound in the hope that she would lay there. Showed some interest by scraping a little and putting her nose into the heap. Then began to wander around the paddock again. Placed on heap several times and then left until 10 pm when she was placed in hut without the pit. This was to prevent her from laying in the pit and to encourage her to go to the mound.

• Friday 19th June 1992: Some grass from mound put into pit. Tried to encourage her to use the mound outside as much as possible, but she was determined to use the pit.

• Monday, 22nd June 1992:
  9.00am. Let out of hut and put on mound without pit and immediately headed for one with pit. Began scraping right away. Nose sniffing the ground.

  9.20am. More or less whole body underneath compost, not much activity from her.

  9.40 am. Moving around a little. Head coming up out of the compost but went back down again shortly afterwards.

  10.00 am. Craping with front legs and moving around head now out of compost completely.

  10.20 am. Digging with hind legs. A hole around 6 inches deep has now been dug. The one are in the left hand side of the pit being concentrated on. Working back and forth in a 45 degree angle as a result of her alternating both legs for digging. Some of the grass moved away from her back end at 10.30 am to get a clearer view of the digging taking place. Buried about 10-15 cm and then dug down a further five or so.

  10.40 am. Digging deeper with hind legs.

  11.00 am. Seems to be digging a little more gently and the tail has begun twitching.

  11.02 am. Has now stopped digging.

  11.08 am. Pushing reasonably hard and head went inside shell.

  11.11 am. First egg laid. A second laid immediately after the first and both had dimples in before being laid.

  11.15 am. 2 eggs laid

  11.16 am. 1 egg laid. Hind right leg pawed at the side of the nest.

  11.18 am. 1 egg laid

  11.20 am. 1 egg laid. She pawed at nest each time she laid an egg.

  11.21 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.22 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.24 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.25 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.26 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.27 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.28 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.29 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.30 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.31 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.32 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.32.45 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.33 am. 1 egg laid, Pulling down some soil from the side.

  11.34 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.36 am. 1 egg laid, Covered over a few eggs.

  11.37 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.38 am. 1 egg laid, Seems to try and place the eggs at the top of the pile by moving back and forth.

  11.38.50 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.40 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.41 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.42 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.44 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.45 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.47 am. 1 egg laid,

  11.50 am. Started to use left hind leg

  11.50 am. 1 egg laid, Went back to using right leg. Left leg again. Both legs being used. Now using both back legs in a wide angle, bringing the compost right on top of where the eggs would be.

  When she first went into the hut she dug at the right hand side of the nest.

As soon as she had completed laying her eggs she began using the more moist peat and woodbark to cover up. She continued to do this until late afternoon when she started to use some of the dryer grass. By the morning of Tuesday 23rd June 1992, she had put a lot of the grasses on top of her heap and had also dug down beside the nest to cover it up.

Eggs changed to a yellow colour the day after hey were laid, but gradually became white again in colour.

Eggs

EGG	WEIGHT (grammes)	BREADTH (mm)	HEIGHT (mm)
1	61.6	48	47
2	65.1	48	46
3	60.3	48	47
4	61.9	49	48
5	60.7	47	48
6	54.1	48	47
7	62.4	48	47
8	63.4	48	47
9	59.9	47	48
10	61.4	48	46
11	61.2	48	47
12	63	48	48
13	63.4	48	49
14	63	48	49
15	61.2	48	49
16	64.8	49	48
17	62.7	48	49
18	64.4	48	49
19	63.9	49	50
20	64.2	49	49
21	62.7	49	49
22	60.9	49	48
23	64	48	49
24	61.4	50	47
25	64.7	49	48
26	63.5	50	49
27	63	49	49
28	61.8	48	49
29	63.3	49	49
30	66.1	49	49
31	62.2	49	46
32	62.2	49	48
33	61.1	47	48
34	60.9	49	46

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