i 



194 GALLIFORMES chap. 



deposited daily, the discrepancy between Li'poa and Merjace-phalon 

 being in this respect very remarkable, but conflicting assertions 

 are only what may be expected where several females lay together, 

 and further investigation should easily decide the question. 



The genus Megapodius contains some fifteen species, about the 

 size of a small fowl, in w^hich the coloration varies from olive or 

 chestnut-brown to blackish or grey above, and from red-brown 

 to pale or dark-grey below, the bill being reddish, greenish, or 

 yellowish, and the feet black, red, orange, yellow, or horn-coloured. 

 M. pritchardi, of Ninafou, alone has white bases to the primaries, 

 and M. wallacii, of the Moluccas, exhibits bright chestnut bands 

 on the upper siu'face. M. duperreyi {tumulus), which ranges 

 from the Kangeang Islands and Lombok to New Guinea and 

 iSTorth-East Australia, fashions mounds, occasionally ten feet high, 

 in dense scrub, laying pale coft'ee-coloured eggs in long burrows 

 bored laterally, and not in symmetrical circles, as does Cathe- 

 turiis. 31. layardi, of the New Hebrides, frequents damp wooded 

 ravines, and is said to deposit its red-brown eggs among leaves in 

 hollows. M. cumingi, found from the islands north of Borneo and 

 Palawan to the Philippines and Celebes, builds mounds of sand, 

 leaves, and so forth, near the sea, the chalky eggs having a salmon 

 hue. 3f. eremita, extending from the Solomon Islands almost to 

 New G-uinea, buries its eggs a couple of feet deep in open sandy spots, 

 kept clear and fenced into allotments by the natives in Savo and 

 Guadalcanar ; while 31. nicohariensis, of the Nicobars, appears to 

 flock more than other Megapodes, and to lay its eggs at long intervals. 

 3. ienimberensis, of the Tenimber Islands, 31. sanghircnsis of the 

 Sanghir group, 3 bernsteini of the Sula Islands, 31. forsteni and 31. 

 freycineti, ranging from the Moluccas to Western or even Northern 

 New Guinea, 3. macgillivrayi of the Louisiade and D'Entrecasteaux 

 Archipelagos and Eastern New Guinea, 31. geelvinhianus, of the west 

 of the latter with its islands, and 3L lape7-oiosii, of the Pelew and 

 Ladrone groups, are like their congeners in habits and appearance. 

 Chosornis praeterifus is an extinct form from Queensland. 



Eam. V. Cracidae. These birds are almost identical in struc- 

 ture with the 3Icgapodiidae, though sharply contrasted in their 

 arboreal habits and their style of breeding. They may be divided 

 into the Sub-families (1) Cracinae or Curassows, (2) Penelopinae 

 or Guans, and (3) Orcophasinae. Of the first of these, where 

 the maxilla is higher than it is broad, the genus Crax has a soft 



