GAME-BIRDS. 17 



Suborder I. Peristeropodes. 



The first suborder of the Game-Birds includes two families, which are 

 easily distinguished by the following characteristics : — The hind toe 

 (hallux) is on the same level as the other toes, and the inner notch of the 

 breast-bone [sternum) is less than half the length of the entire breast- 

 bone. The first family includes the Megapodes and Brush-Turkeys 

 [MegapodiidcB) ; the second the Curassows, Penelopes, and Guans 

 (^Cracidce) . 



Family I. MEGAPoniiDiE. Megapodes. 



The Megapodes or Mound-builders are remarkable not only in having [Case 7.1 

 the oil-gland at the base of the tail nude, but for their peculiar nesting- 

 habits, which possess the highest interest. The eggs, which are very 

 large for the size of the birds, are laid at considerable intervals, and 

 either deposited in holes dug in the sand or in a mound of soil and 

 decaying vegetable matter raised by one or more pairs of birds. The 

 young are hatched as in an incubator by the warmth of the mound or 

 sand, without the aid of the parent birds, and on leaving the shell 

 are fully feathered, able to fly and take care of themselves. In all the 

 species the legs and feet are very large and strong, and well adapted for 

 digging and scratching. 



Of the true Megapodes— all dull-coloured birds — examples will be 

 found in Megapodius cumingi (37) and M. freycineti (38). Like most 

 of the other members of this family, they form a nesting-mound by 

 kicking the soil and dead vegetable matter backwards into a common 

 centre, thus forming a large heap, which is usually situated in dense 

 jungle. By the efforts of successive generations this sometimes 

 attains incredible dimensions, one instance being on record where the 

 circumference round the base of the mound was no less than 150 feet. 

 Each mound is said to be the property of one pair only, and the female, 

 having deposited her eggs and covered them up, leaves them to be 

 incubated by the heat of the accumulated decomposing matter. 



As may be seen by the young of M. cumingi (37) taken from the 

 mound, the young bird when hatched is well-feathered and able to fly. 

 The egg is remarkably large in proportion to the size of the parent. 



The most handsomely marked members of the group are Wallace's 

 Megapode [Eulipoa wallacei) (40), from the Moluccas, and Lipoa 

 ocellata (41), from Southern and Western Australia. To the same 

 family belong the Australian Brush-Turkeys [Catheturus) (43) and 

 their allies from New Guinea [Talegallus) (42). The most remarkable 

 is the Maleo [Megacephalon maleo) (39), a native of Celebes, with its 

 delicate pink breast and an ornamental bare knob on the head. 



c 



