10 Shufeldt, Material for a Study of the Megapodiidce. [.^.f")", 



Material for a Study of the Megapodiidae. 



By Major R. W. Shufeldt, M.D., C.M.Z.S., Hon. Memb. 

 R.A.O.U., Washington, D.C, U.S.A. 



Several years ago, when I published my classification of birds,* 

 the MegapodiidcB were arranged as Family I. of the Sub-Order 

 XXIV. under the Galliformes (Super Sub-Order XV.), and at the 

 present writing I see no reason to reconsider this arrangement. 



Apart from the difference in the rank of the groups employed, 

 Sharpe viewed the position of these birds in the system in a similar 

 light five years previous to the publication of my scheme of 

 classification (jf Aves,-f and other avian taxonomers entertain like 

 opinions. 



In Dr. Sharpe's classification, the Graces (Family Cracidce) 

 follow next in order after the Megapodiidce, as their probable 

 nearest alHes among the Galhnaceous birds, and this may be so. 

 He divided the Megapodiidce into seven genera, namely : — 

 Megapodiiis, with seventeen species ; Eulipoa, with one species — 

 the E. wallacei of the Molucca Islands ; Lipoa, with one species — 

 the L. ocellata of Australia ; Talegallus, with four species, all 

 found in New Guinea and off-lying islands ; Catheturus, with two 

 species, Australian forms ; .Epypodiiis, with two species, a Waigiou 

 and a New Guinea one ; and, finally, the noted Megacephalon, 

 M. maleo, of the Celebes and Sangi Island. 



Professor Alfred Newton has said : — " In 1870 Mr. G. R. Gray 

 enumerated 20 species, of which 16 were represented in the 

 British Museum, and several have been described since ; but ten 

 years later Schlegel recognized only 17 species, of which examples 

 of 12 were contained in the Leyden Museum {Mtjs. des Pays-Bas, 

 viii., Mongr. 41, pp. 56-86), while M. Oustalet, in his elaborate 

 monograph of the family (Ajiu. Sci. Nat., ZooL, ser. 6, x. and xi.), 

 admits 19 species. The birds of this genus range from the Samoa 

 Islands in the cast, through the Tonga Groups, to the New 

 Hebrides, the northern part of Australia, New Guinea and its 

 neighbouring islands, Celebes, the Pelew Islands, and the 

 Ladrones, and have also outliers in detached portions of the 

 Indian Region, as the Philippines (where, indeed, they were first 

 discovered by Europeans), Labuan, and even in the Nicobars — 

 though none are known from the intervening islands of Borneo, | 

 Java, or Sumatra. 



" Within what may be deemed their proper area tliey are found, 

 says Mr. Wallace (' Geogr. Distr. Anim.,' ii., p. 341), ' on the 



* Shufeldt, R. \Y., " An Arrangement of the Families and Higher Groups 

 of Birds." The Amer. Nat., vol. xxxviii., Nos. 455, 456, Nov., Dec, Boston, 

 1904, pp. 833-857, illustrated. The position of the Megapodes is shown 

 on page 852. 



t Sharpe, R. Bowdler, " Hand-list of the Genera and Species of Birds," 

 vol. i., London, 1899, pp. 12-14. 



I M. ciimingi occurs on Labuan and other islands off the north coast of 

 Borneo, and it is recorded (Proc. Zonl. Soc.. 1881, p. 800) from Sandukan, 

 but confirmation of the statement is desirable. 



