Mound bird

mound bird
    n 1: large-footed short-winged birds of Australasia; build
         mounds of decaying vegetation to incubate eggs [syn:
         {megapode}, {mound bird}, {mound-bird}, {mound builder},
         {scrub fowl}]
    

moundbird \moundbird\, mound bird \mound bird\n. (Zool.)
   Any of several large-footed short-winged birds of
   Australasia, which build mounds of decaying vegetation to
   incubate eggs. Called also {mound builder}, {mound maker},
   {megapode}, {brush turkey}, and {scrub fowl}.

   Syn: megapode, mound builder, scrub fowl, brush turkey.
        [WordNet 1.5]
    

Mound \Mound\, n. [OE. mound, mund, protection, AS. mund
   protection, hand; akin to OHG. munt, Icel. mund hand, and
   prob. to L. manus. See {Manual}.]
   An artificial hill or elevation of earth; a raised bank; an
   embarkment thrown up for defense; a bulwark; a rampart; also,
   a natural elevation appearing as if thrown up artificially; a
   regular and isolated hill, hillock, or knoll.
   [1913 Webster]

         To thrid the thickets or to leap the mounds. --Dryden.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Mound bird}. (Zool.) See {moundbird} in the vocabulary.

   {Mound builders} (Ethnol.), the tribe, or tribes, of North
      American aborigines who built, in former times, extensive
      mounds of earth, esp. in the valleys of the Mississippi
      and Ohio Rivers. Formerly they were supposed to have
      preceded the Indians, but later investigations go to show
      that they were, in general, identical with the tribes that
      occupied the country when discovered by Europeans.

   {Mound maker} (Zool.), any one of the {megapodes}. See also
      {moundbird} in the vocabulary.

   {Shell mound}, a mound of refuse shells, collected by
      aborigines who subsisted largely on shellfish. See
      {Midden}, and {Kitchen middens}.
      [1913 Webster]