52 MEGAPODID^, 



Family.- MEG APODlDiE. 



Birds with large legs and feet, commonly known as Mound-birds ; facial 

 skin nude ; head crestless ; tail short ; tarsi thick and strong ; hind toe on the 

 same plane as the anterior one. Eggs large, laid in a mound of earth, heaped 

 up by the parent birds. 



Gen. Megapodius.— z?«. 



Characters the same as those of the family. 



66. Megapodius nicobariensis, Biyth, J. A. S. Befig. xv. p. ; 



Hume, Sir. F. i. p. 82 ; iii. pp. 276, 499; id.. Nests and Eggs Ltd. B. iii. 

 p. 517; Hume and Marsh., Game Birds bid. i. p. I lO ; Murray, Avif. Brit. 

 Ind. ii. p. 532, No. 1190. — The Nicobar Mound Bird or Megapode. 



Upper and lower surface of the body dull chocolate brown, darker on the 

 back and lower abdomen, slightly tinged with rufescent on the lesser, median 

 and greater wing coverts, and greyer on the breast ; all the feathers margined 

 Innately with black ; primaries (3 — 4) yellowish, edged with black ; top of 

 head greenish brown ; lores, orbital and aural region and visible portions of 

 the skin of the neck from a light somewhat dull cherry red to a bright brick 

 red . Legs and feet dark greenish horny ; scuta somewhat paler ; soles of 

 the feet pale carneous ; knee brick red ; bill light greenish horny. 



Length. — 14'5 to 17 inches; wing 8-5 to 9*5 ; tail 275 to 3*5; tarsus 2"6 

 to 275 ; bill at front 0*94 to ri. 



Hah. — The central and southern portions of the Nicobar Islands. Accord- 

 ing to Hume, the Nicobar Megapode never wanders far from the seashore, 

 and throughout the day keeps in thickish jungle a hundred yards or so above 

 water mark. They come out generally at dusk and in the early dawn. 

 Generally met with in pairs, coveys and flocks of from thirty to fifty, and 

 Mr. Hume adds that they are unsurpassed. " The flesh is white, very sweet 

 and juicy, loaded with fat, is delicious, a sort of juste milieu between that of 

 a fat Norfolk turkey and a fat Norfolk pheasant." The eggs too, he says, are 

 quite equal if not superior to those of the Peafowl. Eggs, 10 — ]8 in number, 

 elongated ovals, pointed towards one end, whitish, of a chalky texture, 

 varying in size from 3*01 to 3*4 in length and from 1*9 to 2*25 in breadth. 



Sub-Family.— PHASIANIN.^. 



Tail typically long, with the central feathers of great length ; plumage 

 rarely ocellated ; head more or less crested. Includes {Monaul), the Horned, 

 Gold and Silver, Snow and Blood pheasants, Firebacks and Jungle fowl. 



Gen. Crossoptilon.— i?^c/^J. 



Bill strong, broadly convex ; upper mandible longer than and overlaying the 

 lower mandible ; cere and facial skin nude ; nares basal ; wing with the 6th 



