1 64 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



eggs which a bird produces each season seems to be about 

 eight, so that an interval of three months elapses between the 

 laying of the first and last egg. Now, supposing the eggs to be 

 hatched in the oidinary way, they must be laid on the ground 

 (for the general structure of the birds renders the construc- 

 tion of an arboreal nest impossible) and must be incessantly 

 watched by the parents during that long interval, or they 

 would be surely destroyed by the large lizards which abound 

 in the same district. It seems probable, however, that the 

 eggs could not retain the vital principle for so long a time, so that 

 the bird would have to sit on them from the commencement, 

 and hatch them successively. But the period of incubation is 

 a severe tax upon all birds, even when it is comparatively short, 

 and food easily obtained. In this case complete incubation 

 would be most likely impossible, because the particular species 

 of fruits on which these birds subsist would be soon exhausted 

 around any one locality, and both parents and offspring would 

 perish of hunger. If this view is correct, the Megapodiidm 

 must behave as they do. They must quit their eggs to obtain 

 their own subsistence ; they must bury them to preserve them 

 from wild animals ; and each species does this is the manner 

 which slighter modifications of structure render most con- 

 venient." 



THE TRUE MEGAPODES. GENUS MEGAPODIUS. 



Alegapodhts, Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. Uranie, p. 125 (1824). 



Type, M.freydneti, Q. and G. 



The upper tail-coverts /lot reaching to the extremity of the 

 tail-feathers. 



In some species the head and neck for the most part 

 feathered, while in others these parts, with the exception of 

 the crown and nape, are almost entirely naked. 



Bill slender. 



Nostrils ova/. 



