12 Shufeldt, Material for a Study of the Megapodiidcr. [,., T,, . 



schemes of Forbes, Sclater, Newton, Reichenow, Stejneger, and 

 others. This classification is based upon our knowledge of the 

 morphology of the group, their habits and general biology, and is 

 so well and scientifically established that I have no expectation 

 whatever of disturbing the generally accepted opinion in the 

 premises — that is, with respect to the position of the Megapodes 

 in the S3^stem. These extraordinary birds have been written 

 about for the last three centuries and more, during which time 

 some considerable material illustrating them has collected in our 

 museums, and the object of the present paper is to pass in review 

 such of this as may be available to me at the present time.* 



Forbes never paid much attention to the Megapodiidce, while 

 Garrod took them into consideration when engaged upon his 

 general studies of the arterial and muscular systems of birds, and 

 in some few other papers. In going over his work, it may be 

 as well to note here that he found to be the case in the Gallince 

 that " both carotids are present in all this order, except in the 

 TurnicidcB and Megapodiidce, in which the left only is developed." 

 This statement he based upon his examination of Hemipodius 

 tachydromus, Catheturus lathami, and Megacephalon maleo.-\ 

 " Amongst the Gallincs," he tells us, " I have always found the 

 oil-gland nude in the Megapodiidce {Talegalla and Megacephalon) " 

 {loc. cit., p. 216) ; and, in another paper, " x\mong the Gallince 

 the only genera which at all approach Opisthocomus, as far as 

 the lower larynx is concerned, are those of the Megapodidce " 

 {loc. cit., p. 467). 



Coming to the myology, he found that " the Gallince possess 

 the ambiens, the accessory femoro-caudal, the semitendinosus 

 (large), the accessory semitendinosus (large), and the post- 

 acetabular portion of the tensor faciae (large) ; the femoro-caudal 

 is well developed in some, and absent in a few." With respect 

 to the Megapodiidce, he found this formula to hold in the case of 

 Catheturus lathami and Megacephalon maleo. 



He further pointed out that the Gallince formed an exception 

 to the rule among many birds where " a tufted oil-gland is com- 

 bined with caeca to the intestine " {loc. cit., pp. 202, 216). 



In another place he states that " in the majority of the Gal- 

 linaceous birds the expansor secundariorum, with the normal 

 origin from the secondary quills, has a different method of in- 



* Some of the earliest works upon the MegapodiidcB are as follows : — 

 Antonio Pigafetta (Journal, April, 1521), " Primo Viaggio Intorno al 



Globo," ed. Amoretti ; Milano, 1800, p. 72. 

 Nieremberg, " Historia Naturae," Antwerp, 1635, p. 207. 

 Hernandez, " Hist. Avium Novae Hispaniae," cap. 220, p. 56. 

 Churchill (trans, of Navarrete), " Collection of Voyages and Travels," 



vol. i., 1704. 

 Gmelli Careri, "Voyage du Tour du Monde," Paris, 1727, v., pp. 



157. 158. 

 Petiver, " Phil. Trans.," xxiii., p. 1,398. 



+ " Garrod, Alfred Henry, F.R.S., The Collected Scientific Papers of,'' 

 Loiid., 1881, pp. 173, 174; also P.Z.S., 1873, pp. 457-472, 



