176 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 
dark chestnut. Legs orange-red. Total length, 14-16°8 inches ; 
wing, 8°8—10°2 ; tail, 3°6—4°1 ; tarsus, 2°55-3°0. 
Range.— ’xtending in the west to the Kangeang Archipelago 
and thence eastwards through Lombock, Flores, Sumba, 
Banda, Kei, Aru, Salawatti, Western and Southern New 
Guinea, and the islands of Torres Straits to North-east 
Australia. 
As might be expected with a species occupying so wide a 
range, considerable differences are to be found on comparing 
examples from Flores and Lombock (AZ, gow/dt, Gray) with 
those from Australia, the former being smaller and much 
lighter in colour than the latter. But these differences are so 
entirely bridged over by specimens from the intermediate 
islands, that it is impossible to regard them as being specifi- 
cally distinct, the two extremes passing imperceptibly into 
one another. 
Habits.—The following interesting notes are extracted from 
Gilbert’s account of the habits of this species as observed by 
him in Northern Australia. He says :—‘“I landed beside a 
thicket, and had not proceeded far from the shore ere I came 
to a mound of sand and shells, with a slight mixture of black 
soil, the base resting on a sandy beach, only a few feet above 
high water mark ; it was enveloped in the large yellow-blos- 
somed //tdiscus, was of a conical form, twenty feet in circum- 
ference at the base, and about five feet in height. On point- 
ing it out to a native and asking him what it was, he replied, 
‘“‘Qooregoorga Rambal,” Megapode’s house or nest. I then 
scrambled up to the sides of it, and to my extreme delight 
found a young bird in a hole about two feet deep ; it was lying 
on a few dry, withered leaves, and appeared to be only a few 
days old. . 
‘As it fed rather freely on bruised Indian corn, I was in 
full hopes of rearing it; but it proved of so wild and in- 
tractable a disposition that it would not reconcile itself to such 
