Birds. 7435 



On the Nidificalion of Birds of the Family Megapodiidw — The very peculiar habits 

 of the whole family of the Megapodiidae, departing widely from those of all other birds, 

 may also, I thiuk, be shown to be almost the necessary results of certain peculiarities 

 of organization. These peculiarities are two, — the size and number of the eggs, and 

 the nature of the food on which these birds subsist. Each egg being so large as to fill 

 up the abdominal cavity, and with difficulty pass the walls of the pelvis, a considerable 

 interval must elapse before the succeeding ones can be matured. The number of eggs 

 which a bird produces each season seems to be about eight, so that an interval of three 

 months elapses between the laying of the first and last egg. Now, supposing the eggs to be 

 hatched in the ordinary way, they must be laid on the ground (for the geueral structure 

 of the bird renders the construction of an arboreal nest impossible), and must be inces- 

 santly watched by the parents during that long interval, or they would be surely 

 destroyed by the large lizards which abound in the same district. It seems probable, 

 however, that the eggs could not retain the vital principle for so long a time, so that 

 the bird would have to sit on them from the commencement and hatch them succes- 

 sively. But the period of incubation is a severe tax upon all birds, even when it is 

 comparatively short and food easily obtained. In this case complete incubation would 

 be most likely impossible, because the particular species of fruits on which these birds 

 subsist would be soon exhausted around any one locality, and both parents and oflfspring 

 would perish of hunger. If this view is correct, the Megapodiids must behave as they 

 do. They must quit their eggs to obtain their own subsistence, — they must bury them 

 to preserve them from wild animals ; and each species does this in the mauner which 

 slighter modifications of structure render most convenient. — A. R. Wallace, in ^Ibis,' 

 ii. 145. 



Tame Snipe. — Mr. J. C. Upham, of Starcross, Devon, has a common snipe 

 which is extremely tame and familiar, and answers to the name of Jenny. In Decem- 

 ber last she was caught by some boys near the warren, and was brought to Mr. Upham 

 in a starving slate. She was recovered by forcing her to eat some very minute 

 pieces of raw mutton. Worms having been procured she soon commenced feeding 

 herself, and eventually would follow Mr. Upham round the room for a worm. Her 

 bath is a guod-sized pie-dish, her salle a manger is an eight-inch fiower-pot, and her 

 amusement is in probing a large damp sod of rushes placed for her fresh every day on 

 a good thick piece of brown paper. Three of us went to see her on the 27ih of 

 January. On our entering the parlour where she is allowed to run about she 

 evinced no alarm, and presently commenced feeding. The upper mandible of a snipe's 

 bill being a little longer than the under one, it was with some perseverance and some 

 difficulty that she picked up from the carpet a worm which was thrown to her. Except 

 when she is very hungry she generally washes the worms before eating them. The 

 fiower-pol is half full of earth and worms ; it is placed on its side : the snipe when 

 she feeds probes the earth for a worm ; having caught one she carries it to the pie-dish. 

 After carefully washing it she disables the worm by pinching it all over with the lip 

 part of her bill ; then she takes it by the middle and throws it back to swallow, in doing 

 which the head of the worm is on one side of the bill and the tail on the other. The 

 head and tail soon disappear, and the worm goes down double, even if it be as thick 

 as a goose-quill. The snipe constantly goes in and out of the pie-dish, and probes 

 at its bottom with her bill. She frequently washes herself, throwing the water over 

 her back, and flapping and splashing it with her wings ; after which she comes 

 out of the dish and preens her feathers, spreading her tail like a fan, bending it round 



