Maleos' Eggs. 273 



quite fresh are indeed delicious. They are richer than hen's 

 eggs, and of a finer flavor, and each one completely fills an 

 ordinary tea-cup, and forms, with bread or rice, a very good 

 meal. The color of the shell is a pale brick-red, or very rare- 

 ly pure white. They are elongate, and very slightly smaller 

 at one end, from four to four and a half inches long by two 

 and a quarter or two and a half wide. 



After the eggs are deposited in the sand they are no further 

 cared for by the mother. The young birds, on breaking the 

 shell, work their way up through the sand and run off at once 

 to the forest ; and I was assured by Mr. Duivenboden of Ter- 

 nate that they can fly the very day they are hatched. He 

 had taken some eggs on board his schooner, which hatched 

 during the night, and in the morning the little birds flew 

 readily across the cabin. Considering the great distances the 

 birds come to deposit the eggs in a proper situation (often ten 

 or fifteen miles), it seems extraordinary that they should take 

 no further care of them. It is, however, quite certain that 

 they neither do nor can watch them. The eggs being deposit- 

 ed by a number of hens in succession in the same hole, would 

 render it impossible for each to distinguish its own, and the 

 food necessary for such large birds (consisting entirely of fall- 

 en fruits) can only be obtained by roaming over an extensive 

 district ; so that if the numbers of birds which come down to 

 this single beach in the breeding season, amounting to many 

 hundreds, were obliged to remain in the vicinity, many would 

 perish of hunger. 



In the structure of the feet of this bird we may detect a 

 cause for its departing from the habits of its nearest allies, the 

 Megapodii and TalegalH, which heap up earth, leaves, stones, 

 and sticks into a huge mound, in which they bury their eggs. 

 The feet of the maleo are not nearly so large or strong in pro- 

 portion as in these birds, while its claws are short and straight, 

 instead of being long and much curved. The toes are, how- 

 ever, strongly webbed at the base, forming a broad, powerful 

 foot, which, with the rather long leg, is well adapted to scratch 

 away the loose sand (which flies up in a perfect shower when 

 the birds are at work), but w^hich could not without much labor 

 accumulate the heaps of miscellaneous rubbish which the large, 

 grasping feet of the Megapodius bring together with ease. 



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