MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 213 



the Chief Commissioner (Colonel Anson), Mr. M, V, Portman, a divisional 

 officer, the Chief Commis3ioner''s niece, and two ship's officers, landed in one 

 of the boats. As soon as the party -was landed the two members who had 

 guns separated, and in less than half-an-hour each one had obtained five 

 specimens of the birds we required. The Hornbills were plentiful, and were 

 comparatively speaking, tame as compared with other birds, and many more 

 specimens could have been obtained if we had wished. They only fly a 

 short distance, and make a great noise with their wings when they are flying. 

 The chief peculiarity about the bird is the ribbed furrows on the base of the 

 upper bill or casque. These ridges are not always the same in number as 

 they vary from two to seven or eight, and probably indicate the age of the 

 birds. The colours of the two male birds which I have presented to the 

 Society's museum are head and neck bright rufous, throat a little paler tail 

 white, and the rest of the plumage black, glossed with rifle green. The 

 feathers on the breast, abdomen, and the lower tail coverts are however black 

 and have hardly any of the green gloss which the upper plumage has. The 

 legs and feet are blackish-brown. 



The casque is pale horny yellow, darkish red towards the base of the lower 

 bill, and brownish-red towards the base of the upper one, the base of the 

 casque for half-an-inch behind the ridges being dark red. The ridges on the 

 casque are horny yellow, a little brighter in colour than the rest of the bill. 



One of the specimens has seven ridges on the casque and the other one sis. 



Very few other birds were seen or heard during the short space of time we 

 were on shore, but the island seemed to swarm with large lizards (probably 

 belonging to the family Varanidce), some of them being four or even five 

 feet in length, and two specimens were killed for the sake of their skins. 

 They were as tame as pet mice, and one climbed into the lap of the Chief 

 Commissioner's niece and seemed to be quite at home. 



After leaving Narcondam we called at the Nicobar Islands, and there 

 obtained some specimens of the curious Nicobar Megapodes (JlegapocUus nico- 

 hariensis). This bird is found in most of the islands of the Nicobar group. 

 Its egg is abnormally large for the size of the bird, about six eggs equalling 

 the bird in weight. 



The nest of the Megapode consists of a large mound of sand, piled np by 

 one or more pair of birds in the shape of a cone, reaching to 10 feet in 

 height and 25 to 30 feet in circumference. The centre of the mound ib 

 composed of leaves and dried roots, amongst which the eggs are laid and 

 the heat of the leaves when decaying undoubtedly assists incubation. When 

 hatched the young chicks burrow out through the sand in the same way as 

 young turtles do. 



One peculiarity of the young Megapodes is that they are fully fled«ed 

 when hatched, and commence to forage for themselves at once. 



