1 66 Lloyd's natural history. 



Habits. — According to Mr. A. O. Hume, " The Megapode 

 never wanders far from the sea-shore, and throughout the day it 

 keeps in thickish jungle, a hundred yards or so above high 

 water mark. It never, so far as I observed, emerged on to the 

 open grass hills that form so conspicuous a feature in many 

 of the Nicobars, but throughout the day hugged the belt of 

 more or less dense jungle that in most places, along the whole 

 coast line, supervenes abruptly on the white coral beach. At 

 dusk, during moonlight nights, and in the early dawn, glimpses 

 may be caught of them running about on the shore or even at 

 th^ very water's edge, but during daylight they skulk in the 

 j angle. 



"They are to be met with in pairs, coveys, and flocks of 

 from thirty to fifty. They run with great rapidity and rise un- 

 willingly, running and flying just like jungle hens. They often 

 call to each other, and when a party has been surprised and 

 dispersed, they keep on talking to each other incessantly, half- 

 a-dozen cackling at the same time. The note is not unlike the 

 chuckling of a hen that has recently laid an egg, and is anxious 

 to publish the stupendous fact in nature's pages ; it may be 

 syllabled in a variety of ways, but several of us agreed that on the 

 whole ktik-a-kuk-kuk ! most nearly represented their chuckling, 

 cackling call. 



" The stomachs of all we examined contained tiny land-shells 

 (sometimes with the animals not yet dead), larvae of insects, 

 dissolved matter, apparently vegetable, and minute fragments 

 and particles of quartz or other hard rocks. 



" As game they are unsurpassed. The flesh, very white, very 

 sweet and juicy, loaded with fat, is delicious, a sort oi juste 

 milieu between that of a fat Norfolk Turkey and a fat Norfolk 

 Pheasant. 



" The eggs, too, are quite equal, if not superior, to those of 

 the Pea-Fowl, and, to my mind, higher commendation cannot be 

 given. 



" But it is in regard to their nidification that these birds pos- 



