THE TRUE MEGAPODES, 165 
First primary flight-feather about egual to or rather shorter 
than the tenth; the fifth somewhat the longest. Secondary 
quills as long as the primaries. 
Ta:l short and rounded, composed of ¢welve feathers. 
Legs (metatarsi) and feet very large and strong ; fore-part of 
iegs covered by a single row of large scales. 
Claws long and straight, that of the middle toe being much 
longer than the upper mandible, measured from the posterior 
wall of the nostril to the tip. 
I. THE NICOBAR MEGAPODE. MEGAPODIUS NICOBARIENSIS. 
Megapodius ni.obariensis, Blyth, J. As. Soc Beng. xv. PPoes2s 
372 (1846); v. Pelz. Reise Novara, Vog. p. 110, pls. iv. 
and vi. fig. 12 [egg] (1865) ; Hume and Marshall, Game- 
Birds of India, i. p. 119, pl. (1878); iii. App. Pp: 428, 
pl. il. (1880) ; Oates, ed. Hume’s Nests and Eggs, Ind. 
B. il. p. 449 (1890); Ogilvie-Grant, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 
XXli. Pp. 447 (1893). 
Meg spodius trinautensis, Sharpe, Ann. Mag. N. H. (4) xill. p. 
448 (1874). 
Adult Male and Female.—Upper-parts dull olive-brown, the 
mantle being semilarly coloured to the rest of the upper-parts, 
wing-coverts and outer webs of quills biighter than the back ; 
those of the outer primary quills being pale ochraceous ; under- 
parts pale grey, washed with brown on the chest. Total length, 
14°5 inches; wing, 9°2; tail, 2‘9; tarsus, 2°7. 
Younger examples have the neck feathered and the wnder- 
parts brown or rufous-brown. 
In some examples I have examined the crown is partially or 
entirely naked and covered with thick black-looking skin, which 
has much the appearance of a scab. This peculiarity, which is 
not due to age, is no doubt abnormal, and possibly caused by 
-disease. r . 
Ranze.—Nicobar Islands. 
