392 nCRMA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXS. 



Famili/ Megapodiidse. 



The Megapodes are a remarkable and aberrant family of the present order. 

 Tlioy are duU-eoloured birds of middle size, and the sexes do not fjreatly vary in 

 appearance. Tlicir feet are large, an adaptaticm to the peculiar method they adopt 

 of burying their eggs beneath a mound of nux(>d sand and vegetable matters, wherein 

 the eggs are hatched by the heat generated by the decaying vegetable substances. 

 According to Mr. Hume, wlio gives an interesting account of their habits (S.F. ii. 

 p. 276), a pair of birds commence a mound, which all tlie ])rogeny which are hatched 

 from it continue to use. The mounds, therefore, vary greatly in size with age, and 

 are renewed from time to time, by the birds removing the outer portions, which have 

 become eifcte as it were, and adding fresh vegetable matter with a fresh top covering 

 of sand, consisting mainly of comminuted coral and shells. The mounds examined 

 were situated just within the dense jungle commencing above high-water mark. 



Megapodius Nicobakiensis, Blyth. Nicobars. 



Hume found mounds of this species, as he presumes, on Table Island, off Great 

 Cocos. The eggs are large, averaging 3-25 x 2-07, and when freshly laid are a deep 

 ))ink. During the process of hatching, this colour deepens into brown, probably 

 from the stains it takes up from the surrounding moist rubbish. 



Order GRALLiE. 



The Waders are characterized by long legs, naked above the knee, and by toes 

 not webbed, and usually powerful wings. The Bustards are runners and the Rails 

 swimmers, but the bulk of the order are waders and walkers. In some the trachea 

 is singularly convoluted, being bent back into a loop (lodged between the two walls 

 of the ridge of the sternum), before it enters the lungs. 



■ 

 Family Otididae. 



The Bustards, remarks Blyth, are "foreign to the Indo-Chinese countries, but a 

 straggler of the Sikh Floriken Syphaotides uurita is recorded as having been shot at 

 Sandoway in Arakau." 



Familij Glareolidee. 



The 'Pratincoles' are a peculiar group allied to the plovers, but in their wide 

 gape and forked tails, and their crepuscular habits, and mode of hawking insects in 

 the air, display affinities to the swallows and Caprimulgidx. 



Glabeola orient.alis. Leach. Arakan. Pegu. Toung-ngoo. Tcnasserim. 



Andamaus. Kicobars. 

 G. LACIEA, Tem. Arakau. Pegu. Tcnasserim. 



Family Charadriidse. 



Plovers, says Jcrdon, are more or less gregarious birds, that feed on bare plains, 

 ploughed lands, moors and wilds or wet meadow land, a few preferring the banks of 

 rivcrs,_ sand banks, or the edges of tanks. The eggs are usually four in number 

 (occasionally two), and are of a stone colour or some shade of green, and richly 

 blotched with black or brown. 



ESACINiE. 

 The stone-plovers are large birds ;vith strong bills and no hind toe. 

 EsACDS REcrnviEosTHis, Cuv. Araknn. Pegu. Teuasserim. 



Confined to the banks of rivers and rare in Tenasserim. 

 E. MAGNraosTRis, Gcoffr. Islands of the Morgui Archipelago. 



Andamans. Cocos. 

 ffiDiCNEMns CREPITANS, Tem. Pegu. 



(E. scoLoPAX, Gmel. Plains of Central Tenasserim. 



