150 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Australia, while one of them, the Andalusiau Hemipode, which is an inhabitant of Southern. 

 Europe, has even occurred in Great Britain. They are easily distinguished, by the absence of a 

 hind toe, from the smaller Quails of the genera Coturnix and Excalfactoria. Writing of the 

 Black-breasted Bustard Quail (Turnix taiyoor), Dr. Jerdon observes that in India it " affects grassy 

 patches in the forests and jungles, also low bushy jungle, and is frequently to be found in the fields 

 of chilli and dhal, and in various dense crops, especially if near patches of jungle ; for in open or barren 

 country, or very highly-cultivated country without jungle, it is comparatively rare. Occasionally 

 small bevies of five or six are flushed together, but in general it is put up singly, or two or 

 three birds together. It feeds on grain of various kinds, but also very much on small insects, 

 larvse of grasshoppers, and the like. The female has a peculiar loud purring noise. The hen 

 birds are most pugnacious, especially about the breeding season, and this propensity is made 

 use of, in the South of India, to effect their capture. For this purpose a small cage with a decoy- 

 bird is used, having a concealed spring compartment, made to fall by the snapping of a thread 

 placed between the bars of the cage. It is set on the ground in some thick cover, carefully 

 protected. The decoy-bird begins her loud purring call, which can be heard a long way off, and any 

 females within earshot run rapidly to the spot, and commence fighting with the caged bird, striking 

 at the bars. This soon breaks the thread, the spring-cover falls, ringing at the same time a small bell, 

 by which the owner, who remains concealed near at hand, is warned of a capture, and he runs up, 

 secures his prey, and sets the cage again in another locality. In this way I have known from twelve 

 to twenty birds occasionally captured in one day, in a patch of thick bushy jungle in the Carnatic, 

 where alone I have known this practice carried on. The birds that are caught in this way are all 

 females, and in most cases are birds laying eggs at the time, for I have frequently known instances of 

 some eight or ten of those captured so far advanced in the process as to lay their eggs in the bag in 

 which they are carried before the bird-catcher had reached my house. The eggs are said to be 

 usually deposited under a bush in a slight well-concealed hollow; they are from five to eight in 

 number, and of a dull stone-grey, or green colour, thickly spotted and freckled with dusky spots, very 

 large for the bird, and very blunt. In the Carnatic this bird breeds from July to September ; farther 

 south from June to August, and in Ceylon, says Layard, from February to August. The females are 

 said by the natives to desert their eggs, and to associate together in flocks, and the males are said to 

 be employed in hatching the eggs, but I can neither confirm nor reject this from my own observation." * 



THE EIGHTH FAMILY OF THE GAME BIKDS. THE MEGAPODES (Negapodidte). 



The name Megapode is derived from two Greek words, signifying that the birds have large 

 feet; and in proportion to the size of the bird the foot is, indeed, very big and powerful, being 

 employed for scratching together the earth and rubbish, in heaps of which the eggs are deposited 

 by the Megapode. The members of the family are distributed over Australia, the Papuan 

 Islands, extending throughout the Moluccas and Celebes to Borneo and the Philippines, while an 

 outlying species is found to inhabit the Nicobars. The largest of them all are the Brush-Turkeys 

 ( Talegallus) of Australia and New Guinea, the Australian species (T. lathami) having been acclima- 

 tised in Europe, so that in the Zoological Gardens the birds may not only be seen in a state of nature, 

 but there are generally one or two of their mounds to be seen also. The members of the genus 

 Talegallus have wattled skin on the head and neck, whence their supposed resemblance to a Turkey 

 has gained for them the familiar name of Brush- Turkey from the Australian settlers. As a rule, the 

 colouring of the Megapodes is sombre, being generally brown or black, the only exception being the 

 Maleo bird of Celebes, which has a curious knob on the head, while the breast is light-pink in colour. 

 Of this bird Mr. Wallace gives the following interesting account : 



" In the months of August and September, when there is little or no rain, the Maleos come down 

 in pairs from the interior to one or two favourite spots, and scratch holes three or four feet deep, just 

 above high- water mark, where the female deposits a single large egg, which she covers with about a foot 

 of sand, and then returns to the forest. At the end of ten or twelve days she comes again to the same 

 spot to lay another egg, and each female bird is supposed to lay six or eight eggs during the season. The 



* "Birds of India," Vol. II. , p. 597. 



