THE TRUE MEGAPODES. 173 
Habits.—Writing of this Megapode as observed in New 
Britain, where it is especially numerous, Mr. E. L. Lay- 
ard says:—“ This bird is a perfect nuisance in Blanche 
Bay, the whole place, both on the grassy flats and bush- 
covered hill-sides, being so undermined with their nesting- 
holes that we were continually stumbling into them, not- 
withstanding all our care in walking. Like domestic Fowls, 
they lay indiscriminately in each other’s nests. Some of these 
are regular excavations, six or seven feet deep. Going shoot- 
ing one day, I saw two flat white things moving in the mouth 
of a small cavern by the side of the road. Upon closer in- 
spection they proved to be the upturned soles of a native’s 
feet, their owner being head downwards, nearly six feet under- 
ground. He presently emerged with five eggs, which I pur- 
chased on the spot for a penny stick of tobacco. The con- 
sumption of eggs by the ‘ Renard’s’ thirty men was something 
enormous, the price alongside being six eggs for one stick of 
tobacco. The birds were very numerous, and when flushed 
took to the trees. . . . The great holes in the plain are 
easily accounted for. A Megapode scratches a hole and buries 
her egg ; a native comes along, rakes out the egg with hs 
hands, but does not fill the hole up again. Another bird lays 
at the bottom of the excavation, and a native digs it out 
again, until at length a perfect tunnel is formed in the soft 
volcanic earth.” 
According to Dr.O. Finsch :—“ They seem to lay all the year 
round, except in the rainy months, when eggs are very rare, 
and for a short time not to be had at all. <A year and a half 
ago (in 1881), forty eggs could be bought from the natives for 
one stick of tobacco; now one gets only two. 
* Although Megapodius eremita is very common, one very 
seldom gets a sight of it. It runs very quickly through the 
jungle, or is seen only on the wing for a moment among the 
foliage of the trees. The young ones, when hatched, are 
already able to fly. It is singular that among the numerous 
