190 GALLIFORMES CHAP. 
structure from Zurnix by the presence of a small hind-toe. The 
lax upper plumage is, in 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 
Fic, 43.— Plain-Wanderer.”  Pedionomus torquatus. x4. 
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 Zurnix, 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, 
commeuce the’ section Peristeropodes (p. 186) of the Sub-Order 
GALLI. 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, Zipoa having the smallest; while the 
metatarsi are usually scutellated, but are reticulated anteriorly 
in Megacephalon, which has comparatively short and blunt 
claws. The abbreviated wings have ten primaries and some six 
secondaries. The tail is long and rounded in Yalegallus and 
Lipoa, with upper coyerts extending to the tip in the latter; 
it is short but still rounded in Jegapodius ; long and obcordate 
when expanded in Catheturus, Aepypodius, and Megacephalon. The 
rectrices number twelve in MJegapodius, sixteen in Lipoa, Tale- 
