Miscellaneous. 501 



and the bill and feet much stronger than in T. Cuvleri. Analogous 

 characters, but still more strongly marked, may be observed in a 

 new species from the island of Waigiou, a species which I shall 

 propose to call TalegaUus Bruijnii. This Talegalla from "Waigiou 

 not only bears a wattle on the front of the throat, but it has on the 

 middle of the head a regular crest which is continued posteriorly 

 by a sort of hood with two pendants. It deserves to be classed, 

 with T. pyrrhopygius, in a new subdivision of the genus TalegaUus, 

 the subgenus JEpypodius*. 



Recent discoveries have compelled me partially to rectify the 

 frontiers assigned to the Peristeropodes by Prof. Huxley, and have 

 proved that the northern limit of these birds only coincides at one 

 point, near Lombok, with Wallace's line. Considered generally, 

 the area of habitat of the Peristeropodes forms on the surface of the 

 globe a band extending between 20° of north latitude and 40° of 

 south latitude, but cut up in the direction of the meridians by two 

 enormous gaps. The Hoccos and the Penelopes occupy a consider- 

 able portion of this band, namely that which corresponds to tropi- 

 cal America ; while the Megapodes and their allies are spread over 

 islands which seem for the most part to be the fragments of an old 

 southern continent. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that 

 the Megapodes cease suddenly towards the east in the region where 

 the atolls commence. To the west the Megapodes are still more 

 widely separated from the Cracidae ; but it is important to remark 

 that in this direction the African continent is inhabited by the 

 Pintados or Numididse, the affinities of which to the Megapodes are 

 greater than is generally supposed. 



Thus the geographical distribution of the Megapodiida? seems to 

 be perfectly in agreement with their zoological relationships ; but 

 when we study the habitat of each genus, or, still better, of each 

 species, we recognize many anomalies which it is often difficult to 

 explain in a satisfactory manner. To cite only one example, we 

 are astonished to find on the Nicobars a Megapode allied to those 

 of New Guinea, whilst we find no analogous form in Java, or in 

 Sumatra, or in Malacca. I do not think, as Mr. Wallace does, that 

 this species has been imported by the Malays, but rather believe 

 that it has remained, along with Caloenas nicobarica, as the evidence 

 of a fauna that has disappeared. Every thing, in fact, concurs 

 to prove •chat the Megapodiida? represent an extremely ancient type 

 among the Gallinaceae. In their mode of reproduction they seem 

 to have retained some characters of the reptiles, since they lay eggs 

 of extraordinary size, the incubation of which they often abandon 

 to the action of the sun's rays. 



Lastly, it may perhaps be well to recall the fact that up to the 

 present day there has not been discovered in the Tertiary strata of 

 these countries the smallest fragment that can be referred to a 



* From W.TTVS, elevated, and nobiou, support, foot. I should certainly 

 have preferred the name JEpypm to sEpypodius, if the latter had not 

 the advantage of reminding us by its termination of the word Mcga- 

 podius. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 5. Vol. v. 34 



