RASORES. 167 



Genus MEGAPODIUS, Qiioy et Gaimard. 



The members of this genus inhabit many of the Indian and 

 Phihppine Islands, and one species is found in AustraHa. It 

 is said that the females of some species associate in bands 

 during the night and deposit their eggs in the sand of the 

 sea-shore to the depth of two or three feet ; that the suc- 

 cessive deposits of eggs amount to a hundred or more, and are 

 left to be hatched by the solar rays. 



Sp. 478. MEGAPODIUS TUMULUS, Gould. 

 Australian Megapode. 



Megapodius tumulus, Gould iu Proc. of Zool. Soc, part x. p. 20. 

 Oooreyoorgd, Aborigines of the Cobourg Peninsula. 

 Jungle-fowl, Colonists of Port Essington. 



Megapodius tumulus, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v. pi. 79. 



The discovery of a species of Megapodius in Australia is no 

 more than might have been expected, considering that New 

 Guinea and the adjacent islands are the great nursery of this 

 extraordinary tribe of birds. 



When the Megapodius tumidus first came under my obser- 

 vation I conceived it to be the M. rubripes of Temminck, and 

 it was not until I had examined specimens of that species in 

 the Museums of Paris and Ley den that I was satisfied of its 

 being distinct. Its much greater size and more than propor- 

 tionately powerful legs are among the specific dijBPerences 

 which will be observable by those who may feel disposed to 

 institute a comparison. Interesting as this bird must be to 

 every naturalist, to myself it is peculiarly so, since the 

 valuable notes on its habits and economy, which happily I am 

 enabled to give, fully confirm all that I had previously asserted 

 respecting the extraordinary mode of incubation of the Tale- 

 ^alluSi verifying the opinion I have before expressed, that 



