1^. Shufeldt, Material for a Study of the Megapodiidct. [,^f"l"i ■ 



Personally, I have studied all the skins of the Megapodiida; in 

 the collections of the United States National Museum, for which 

 courtesy I have to thank Dr. Chas. W. Richmond, Assistant 

 Curator of the Division of Birds of that institution. Several 

 skins were, moreover, loaned me for the purposes of photography, 

 and from them I secured negatives which yielded me pliotographs ; 

 these latter, remodelled and coloured ])y hand, form the subjects 

 of three of the plates to the present paper. My observations on 

 all of these skins were compared with those of Ogilvie-Grant, 

 who worked the family up for the " Catalogue of Birds of the 

 British Museum " (vol. xxii., p. 445). 



This author makes a sub-order (II.) for the Peristcropodcs, and 

 the Mcgapodiidce is the leading family in it (Fani. I.) This 

 family is followed by a " Key to the Genera," of which latter he 

 admits seven, namely :-s-i, Megapodius ; 2, Eulipoa ; 3, Lipoa ; 

 4, Talegallns ; 5, Catheturus ; 6, .Epypodiiis : 7, Megacephalon. 

 These genera, in so far as Mr. Ogilvie-Grant is concerned, are 

 based entirely upon external characters.* 



Megapodius xicobariensis. 

 (Plate I., fig. I.) 



Perhaps there has been more published abcnit the Xicobar 

 Megapocle than any other species of the family. Ogilvie-Grant 

 gives a good, though brief, description of the bird (" B. M. Cat.," 

 xxii., p. 447), and it has been figured a number of times.f 



It would appear that originally this species was confined to 

 Nicobar Island ; but there is some evidence that they have been 

 introduced elsewhere through the agency of man. Lister says 

 that Professor J. Stanley Gardiner believes that " a sultan of the 

 Maldive Islands, who died in 1878, introduced Megapodes into an 

 islet covered with cocoanuts and scrub, forming a part of the 

 great atoll of Male in that archipelago. Professor Gardiner thinks 

 they were probably imported from the Nicobar Islands." 



Again, Guillemand (referring to Wallace's view)J says :^ 

 " That this (Nicobar bird) is not impossible must be evident to 

 every traveller in the Malay Archipelago, for birds of this genus 

 are often seen in captivity " (" Cruise of the Marchesa," vol. ii., 

 p. 122, footnote, 1886). 



* Ogilvie-Grant, " Cat. Birds Brit. ^lus.," vol. xxii. See also, by the 

 same author, Allen's Nat. Lib., " Handbook to the Game Birds," vol. ii., 

 p. 182, 1895-97 ; Meyer and Wiglesworth, " Birds of Celebes," vol. ii., 1898, 

 p. 671 ; Semper, Karl, " The Natural Conditions of Existence as They Affect 

 Animal Life," Internat. Scientific Series, vol. xxxi., London, 1883, 

 chap, viii., pp. 234-264. 



t V. Pelzen, " Reise Novara Vogel.," p. no, pis. iv. and vi. Fig. 12 = 

 the egg. This work I have examined, and I find the ligures of the bird 

 very indifferent, while that of the egg is probably nearly correct with respect 

 to colour, size, and form — that is, as nearly correct as a lithographic figure 

 can make it. 



+ Wallace, A. R., " Geograph. Distrib. of Animals," London, vol. ii., 

 P- 342. 



