152 NATURAL HISTORY. 



male assists the female in making the hole, coming down and returning with her. The appearance of these 

 birds when walking on the beach is very handsome. The glossy black and rosy white of the phimage, 

 the helmeted head, and elevated tail, like that of the common fowl, give a striking character, which 

 their stately and somewhat sedate walk renders still more remarkable. There is hardly any difference 

 between the sexes, except that the casque or bonnet at the back of the head, and the tubercles at the 

 nostrils, are a little lai-ger, while the beautiful rosy salmon-colour is perhaps deeper in the male bird ; 

 but the difference is so slight that it is not always possible to tell a male from a female without dissec- 

 tion. They run quickly, but when shot at or suddenly disturbed take wing with a heavy noisy flight 

 to some neighbouring tree, where they settle on a low branch ; they probably roost at night in a similar 

 situation. Many females lay in the same hole, for a dozen eggs are often found together, and these 

 are so large that it is not possible for the body of the bird to contain more than one fully-developed 

 egg at the same time. In all the female birds which I shot," continues this author, " none of the eggs 

 besides the one large one exceeded the size of peas, and there were only eight or nine of these, which 

 is possibly the extreme number a bird can lay in the season. 



" Arrived at our destination, we built a hut, and prepared for a stay of some days, I to shoot and 

 skin Maleos. The place is situated in the large bay between the islands of Limbe and Banca, and 

 consists of a steep beach more than a mile in length, of deep, loose, and coarse black volcanic sand, or 

 rather gravel, very fatiguing to walk over. It is in this loose black sand that those singular birds, 

 the Maleos, deposit their egg. 



" Every year the natives come for fifty miles round to obtain these eggs, which are esteemed a 

 great delicacy, and when quite fresh are indeed delicious. They are richer than hens' eggs, and of 

 a fine flavour ; each one completely fills an ordinary tea-cup, and forms, with bread or rice, a very good 

 meal. The colour of the shell is a pale brick-red, or very rarely pure white. They are elongate, and 

 very slightly smaller at one end, from four to four and a half inches long, by two and a quarter and 

 two and a half wide." 



After the eggs are deposited in the sand they are no longer cared for by the mother. The young 

 birds, on breaking the shell, work their way up through the sand, and run off at once to the forest. 

 " I was assured by Mr. Duivenboden, of Ternate," says Wallace, " that they can fly the very day they 

 are hatched. He had taken some eggs on board his schooner which were hatched during the night, 

 and in the morning the little birds flew readily across the cabin. Considering the great distances the 

 hens come to deposit the eggs in a proper situation (often ten or fifteen miles), it seems extraordinary 

 that they should take no further care of them. It is, however, quite certain that they neither do nor 

 can watch them. The eggs being deposited by a mimber of hens in succession in the same hole would 

 render it impossible for each to distinguish its own, and the food necessary for such large birds, 

 consisting entirely of fallen fruits, can only be obtained by roaming over an extensive district ; so that 

 if the numbers which come down to this single beach in the breeding season, amounting to many 

 hundreds, were obliged to remain in the vicinity, many would perish of hunger." Dr. Meyer says that 

 the native name of this bird in Celebes is not Maleo, but Moleo. 



Of a true Megapodius we have a good example in Cuming's Megapode (Megapodius cumingi), from 

 North-western Borneo, and the following history of the species is given by Mr. Motley in his " Natural 

 History of Labuan." He writes : 



" In Labuan they are not uncommon, and are said to be principally confined to small islands, to 

 such, more especially, as have sandy beaches. They are very rarely to be seen, being extremely shy, 

 and frequenting dense and flat parts of the jungle, where the ratans grow, and where the luxuriance 

 of the vegetation renders concealment easy. The Malays snare them by forming long, thick 

 fences in unfrequented parts of the jungle, in which, at certain intervals, they leave openings where 

 they place traps. The birds run through the jungle in search of food, and coming to this fence, run 

 along it till they find one of the openings, through which they push their way, and ai-e caught in the 

 trap. In walking they lift up their feet very high, and set up their backs something like Guinea 

 Fowls ; they frequently make a loud noise like the screech of a chicken when caught ; they are very 

 pugnacious, and fight with great fury by jumping upon one another's backs, and scratching with their 

 long, strong claws. Their food principally consists of seeds and insects. The eggs are of a fine dark creain 

 colour, and of a very large size, three of them weighing nearly as much as a full-grown bird. Accord- 



