164 LLOYD’S NATURAL HISTORY, 
eggs which a bird produces each season seems to be about 
eight, so that an interval of ¢hree months elapses between the 
laying of the first and last egg. Now, supposing the eggs to be 
hatched in the ordinary way, they must be laid on the ground 
(for the general structure of the birds renders the construc- 
tion of an arboreal nest impossible) and must be incessantly 
watched by the parents during that long interval, or they 
would be surely destroyed by the large lizards which abound 
in the same district. It seems probable, however, that the 
eggs could not retain the vital principle for so long a time, so that 
the bird would have to sit on them from the commencement, 
and hatch them successively. But the period of incubation is 
a severe tax upon all birds, even when it is comparatively short, 
and food easily obtained. In this case complete incubation 
would be most likely impossible, because the particular species 
of fruits on which these birds subsist would be soon exhausted 
around any one locality, and both parents and offspring would 
perish of hunger. If this view is correct, the A/legapodiude 
must behave as they do. They must quit their eggs to obtain 
their own subsistence ; they must bury them to preserve them 
from wild animals; and each species does this is the manner 
which slighter modifications of structure render most con- 
venient.” 
THE TRUE MEGAPODES, GENUS MEGAPODIUS. 
Megapodius, Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. Uranie, p. 125 (1824). 
Type, AZ, freveinetz, Q. and G. 
The upper tail-coverts ot reaching to the extremity of the 
tail-feathers. 
In some species the head and neck for the most part 
feathered, while in others these parts, with the exception of 
the crown and nape, are almost entirely naked. 
Bill slender. 
Nostrils ova/, 
