192 GALLIFORMES CHAP. 
Ladrones, replacing the Pheasants within these limits—save for 
the Philippines—yjust as the Cracidae do in Neotropical countries. 
No species is yet recorded from Sumatra or Java, and confirma- 
tion is needed in the case of the main island of Borneo. 
Megacephalon mateo of North Celebes and the Sanghir Islands 
is glossy blackish-brown, with salmon-pink breast and belly, a 
vaulted tail, a black casque of cellular tissue, and dusky bill and 
feet. The Maleo, as it is called, inhabits hilly country, but resorts 
in hundreds to sloping gravelly beaches to breed, holes being 
scratched or dug just above high-water mark, some four or five 
feet in diameter. In these from two to eight pale brownish-red 
eges are laid, about six inches apart—at intervals, it is said, of a 
fortnight or so—several females occasionally using one cavity. 
Aepypodius bruyjni of Waigiou is brownish-black, with chestnut 
rump and breast, dusky bill and feet ; a fleshy papillose crest adorns 
the head, and three wattles—one median and two lateral—occur on 
the neck, all probably red in life. Ae. arfakianus of New Guinea 
is black above and brownish below, with no lateral wattles. 
Catheturus lathami, the “ Brush Turkey ” of Eastern Australia, 
is blackish-brown with greyish under surface, shewing conspicuous 
light margins to the feathers. It has a bright yellow neck-wattle, 
reddish head and neck, black bill and brown feet. This species 
forms mounds of earth and decayed leaves, sometimes as much as 
six feet high and fourteen feet in diameter at the base, and covers 
the coarse outer layers with fresh leaves and sticks. The central 
portion is hollowed out like a cup, successive layers of eggs being 
deposited from the circumference inwards in concentric circles, and 
the earth gradually filled in above them. Several females some- 
times utilize the same mound, each being said to lay an egg every 
second day. These eggs, placed with the small end downwards, 
number from twenty to nearly forty, and are of a long pointed oval 
shape and of a white colour with minute granulations. The site 
is usually a level clearing among scrub, whither the materials are 
conveyed by being repeatedly thrown backwards by the feet, while 
the cock possibly assists in building.’ Talegallus cuvieri, of 
Western New Guinea, Salwatti, Mysol and Gilolo, is black with 
whitish throat ; the naked parts are red-brown, the bill and feet 
1 This species has bred in the Zoological Society’s Gardens, where the active young 
left the mound within twenty-four hours of being hatched. A. D. Bartlett, P.Z.S. 
1860, pp. 426,427. C. purpureicollis has been recently described from Cape York. 
