ipo 



GALLIFORMES 



structure from Turiiix by the presence of a small hind-toe. The 

 lax upper plumage is, iu the female, reddish-brown with black 

 barring and buff margins to the feathers, the lower parts being 

 pale buff marked with black. A broad white collar spotted 

 with black surrounds the neck, while a rust-coloured nape and 



Fig. 43. — " Plain- Wanderer. " Pedionomus torquatus. x \. 



chest distinguish the above sex from the male, where the collar is 

 brown and buff. This curious bird, somewhat smaller than a Quail, 

 inhabits grassy plains in Southern and Eastern Australia, prefer- 

 ring the wilder districts. The habits are much as in Turnix, but 

 the nest seems never to be domed, the four eggs being of a light 

 stone-colour, thickly freckled and blotched with brown and grey. 

 Fam. IV. Megapodiidae. — The Megapodes, or Mound-builders, 

 commence the section Peristeropodes (p. 186) of the Sub-Order 

 GrALLi. The bill is short, stout, and arched, though rather slender 

 in Megapodius ; the feet are exceptionally strong, and enormous 

 for the size of the birds, Lifoa having the smallest ; while the 

 metatarsi are usually scutellated, but are reticulated anteriorly 

 in Megaceiilialon, which has comparatively short and blunt 

 claws. The abbreviated wings have ten primaries and some six 

 secondaries. The tail is long and rounded in Talegallus and 

 Lipoa, with upper coverts extending to the tip in the latter ; 

 it is short but still rounded in Megajjodius ; long and obcordate 

 when expanded in Catheturus, AepyjJodius, and Megacephalon. The 

 rectrices number twelve in Megapodius, sixteen in Lipoa, Tale- 



