228 AVES ORDER GALLIFORMES 



them up again, apparently for the purpose of assisting those that may have 

 appeared ; while others have informed me that the eggs are merely deposited, 

 and the young allowed to force their way out unassisted. One point, how- 

 ever, has been clearly ascertained, viz. that the young, from the hour they 

 are hatched, are clothed with feathers, and have their wings sufficiently 

 developed to enable them to fly on to the branches of trees, should they need 

 to do so to escape from danger ; they are equally nimble on their legs. In 

 fact, as a moth emerges from its chrysalis, dries its wings, and flies away, so 

 the youthful brush-turkey, when it leaves the egg, is sufficiently perfect to be 

 able to act independently and procure its own food." 



Of the habits of the Papuan and Moluccan genera, Taleyallus and 

 dEpypodius, little is known ; but the ways of the species of Lipoa and Meya- 

 podius have been more carefully studied. Ealipoa from the Moluccas has 

 but one species, E. wallacii, with a more rounded wing than in the ordinary 

 megapodes, and further remarkable for its brighter colours. Of the 

 ocellated megapode (Lipoa ocdlata} Sir George Grey sent to Mr. Gould a 

 most interesting account of the habits, from which it appears that the birds 

 tirst scratch a hole in the sand, fill it up with dead leaves and grass, and then 

 build a mound of dried grass, etc., over it. The hole is then opened and an 

 egg deposited in the sand, and as many as eight are placed at intervals, an 

 egg being deposited every day, or at least every few days; and the male bird 

 helps the female to uncover the hole. The eggs are p laced upright, and 

 several mounds are found within a short distance of each other, each being 

 the property of a single pair of birds. All the megapodes are very shy birds, 

 and escape to the trees when pursued, roosting in these during the heat of 

 the day, and being then apparently stupid birds they can be shot down 

 in succession without attempting to fly, so that the whole party is soon 

 cleared off. 



The true megapodes (Meyapodius) are the most widely distributed of any 

 of the group, but are best known from the studies which have been made of 

 the habits of the Australian species, M. tumulus. Gilbert found many nests 

 of this bird in the Cobourg Peninsula, and dug out a young bird, which he 

 kept alive for a few days. It was, however, very wild and intractable, and 

 made its escape ; but it is interesting to learn that this little chick employed 

 its time in continually scratching up sand, for which purpose it only used 

 one foot. Eggs were taken by Gilbert from a depth of six feet in the mound, 

 but as the holes ran down obliquely from the centre, towards the outer slope 

 of the hillock, the eggs might be six feet deep from the summit but only two 

 or three feet from the side of the mound. One mound that Gilbert found in 

 Knocker's Bay in a thicket was fifty feet in height and sixty feet in circum- 

 ference ; and the late Mr. Davison met with a mound of the Nicobar mega- 

 pode (M. nicobariensis) which was eight feel) in height and quite sixty feet 

 in circumference. Mr. John Whitehead, in the course of his famous explora- 

 tions in the Malay Archipelago, visited the Island of Palawan, and there 

 made the acquaintance of Cuming's megapode (Meyapodius cuminyi), which 

 he found nesting from June to August. The note of this species is a most 

 doleful " mew," exactly like that of a cat in distress, and is heard many 

 times towards evening, adding to the melancholy of the forest. The nest 

 he describes as a most wonderful structure, and no doubt the result of the 

 labour of several pairs of birds. The eggs were placed so deep that it was 

 impossible to reach them, and he says that he dug out a young bird so far 

 grown that it looked like the adult of another species, and yet, although 



