166 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 
Habits—According to Mr. A. O. Hume, “The Megapode. 
never wanders far from the sea-shore, and throughout the day it 
keeps in thickish jungle, a hundred yards or so above high 
water mark. It never, so far as-I observed, emerged on to the 
open grass hills that form so conspicuous a feature in many. 
of the Nicobars, but throughout the day hugged the belt of 
more or less dense jungle that in most places, along the whole 
coast line, supervenes abruptly on the white coral beach. At 
dusk, during moonlight nights, and in the early dawn, glimpses 
may be caught of them running about on the shore or even at 
the very water’s edge, but during daylight they skulk in the 
jungle. | 
“They are to be met with in pairs, coveys, and flocks of 
from thirty to fifty. ‘They run with great rapidity and rise un- 
willingly, running and flying just like jungle hens. They often 
call to each other, and when a party has been surprised and 
dispersed, they keep on talking to each other incessantly, half- 
a-dozen cackling at the same time. The note is not unlike the 
chuckling of a hen that has recently laid an egg, and is anxious 
to publish the stupendous fact in nature’s pages ; it may be 
syllabled ina variety of ways, but several of us agreed that on the 
whole kuk-a-ktk-ktk ! most nearly represented their chuckling, 
cackling call. 
“The stomachs of all we examined contained tiny land-shells 
(sometimes with the animals not yet dead), larvee of insects, 
dissolved matter, apparently vegetable, and minute fragments 
and particles of quartz or other hard rocks. 
‘“* As game they are unsurpassed.. The flesh, very white, very _ 
sweet and juicy, loaded with fat, is delicious, a sort of jus/e 
milieu between that of a fat Norfolk Turkey and a fat Norfolk 
Pheasant. 
“The eggs, too, are quite equal, if not superior, to those of 
the Pea-Fowl, and, to my mind, higher commendation cannot be 
given. 
** But it is in regard to their nidification that these birds pos- 
