438 GAME-BIRDS. 



suited for scratching up the earth and preparing their nesting-mounds. The true 

 megapodes include fifteen difierent species, widely scattered over the islands of the 

 Pacific and Australia, one (Megapodius cumingi) ranging to the Philippines, 

 another {M. laperousii) being found in the Ladrone and Pelew Islands, while an 

 isolated western form occurs in the Nicobars. The plumage is remarkably sombre, 

 being generally olive-brown or rufous above and grey beneath. The Nicobar 

 megapode {M. nicobariensis) during the day frequents the dense jungle near 

 the coast, and may be met with in pairs or in flocks of thirty or more. It 

 is a difficult bird to flush, usually preferring to escape by running. The nest- 

 ing-mounds are generally placed near the shore, and average about 5 feet in height 

 and 30 in circumference. Davison met with one "which must have been at 

 least 8 feet high and quite 60 feet in circumference. It was apparently a very 

 old one, for from near its centre grew a tree about 6 inches in diameter, whose 

 roots penetrated the mound in all directions to within a foot of its summit, 

 some of them being nearly as thick as a man's wrist. I had this mound dug away 

 almost to the level of the surrounding land, but only got three eggs from it, one 

 quite fresh, and two in which the chicks were somewhat developed. Off this 

 mound I shot a megapode, which had evidently only just laid an egg. I 

 dissected it, and from a careful examination it would seem that the eggs are laid 

 at long intervals apart, for the largest egg in the ovary was only about the size 

 of a large pea, and the next in size about as big as a small pea. These mounds 

 are also used by reptiles, for out of one I dug, besides the megapode's eggs, about 

 a dozen eggs of some large lizard. I made inquiries among the natives about 

 these birds, and from them I learnt that they usually get four or five eggs from 

 a mound, but sometimes they get as many as ten ; they all assert that only one 

 pair of birds are concerned in the making of a mound, and that they only work 

 at night. When newly made, the mounds (so I was informed) are small, but are 

 gradually enlarged by the birds." 



An exceptionally marked species, Wallace's megapode (Eulipoa wallacei), from 

 Gilolo and some of the islands to the west of New Guinea, is characterised by 

 having the secondary flight-feathers much shorter than the primaries, and the 

 feathers of the middle of the back and most of the wing-coverts barred with bright 

 chestnut. Still larger is the ocellated megapode (Lipoa ocellata) of Southern and 

 Western Australia, distinguished by having the upper tail-coverts reaching to the 

 end of the tail, and the plumage of the upper-parts mostly grey barred with black. 

 Brush Turk '^^^ brush-turkeys (Talegallus) include three or four species of 



large, dark-coloured birds, with stout bills, oval nostrils, and the head, 

 throat, and front of the neck thinly covered with small scattered feathers ; the 

 genus being confined to New Guinea and some of the adjacent islands. The 

 Australian hrn8h.-turkej(Catheturu8lathami),sho-wn in the woodcut, differs in having 

 a large wattle at the base of the neck, the nostrils round, and the tail much longer. 

 In both sexes the general colour of the upper-parts is dark brownish black, paler 

 on the lower back and rump, the under-parts being dark brownish grey, broadly 

 edged with white, the naked skin of the head and neck pinky red, and the wattle 

 bright yellow. Gould observes that " at the commencement of spring the wattled 

 talegallus scratches together an immense heap of decaying vegetable matter as a 



