276 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



" Many of these birds are caught on the western coast of 

 Nancowry and Camorta with horse hair nooses, placed on the 

 ground in places they frequent, the bait used being wild fruit. 

 They sell at Camorta for Rs. 3, or 6 shillings per pair, and a 

 good many find their way to Calcutta. The Nicobarese call 

 it Lo-ung, and it is known by this name to the Malays and 

 many of the Burmese who trade at the islands." 



The egg, which measures 1'84 by 1*27, is pure white and 

 spotless ; the shell, though compact, is very finely pitted all over, 

 and it has scarcely a trace of gloss. 



803 — Pavo cristatus, Lin. 



Peafowl are very numerous on Ross, where their cries during 

 the night, each time a gong is struck, are rather exasperating to 

 visitors. Although numbers have been from time to time deported 

 and turned loose on the mainland, they would not appear to 

 have yet thriven there, as they have at Ross, where they were 

 turned loose only about five years ago. 



803 sextus. — Megapodius nicobariensis, Blyth. 

 (15.) 



Although we only obtained this species in the Nicobars we 

 saw what were apparently mounds made by this species on 

 Table Island off the Great Cocos, and the Lighthouse-keeper 

 described to me brown hen like birds with large feet that he 

 had shot on the island on several occasions, and which can 

 scarcely have been anything but this species. 



The following is a resume of the dimensions of 15 specimens 

 measured in the flesh. The birds vary a good deal in size but 

 this is probably due to age, and certainly not to sex, as some of 

 thejlargest and some of the smallest birds belonged to each sex :- — 



Length, 14 - 5 to 17 ■ expanse, 28 to 32"5; wing, 8 to 9'5 ; 

 tail, from vent, 2*75 to 3*5 ; tarsus, 2'6 to 2"75 : bill, from 

 gape, 1'2 to 1*3; bill, at front, 0-94 to 1*1 j wings, when 

 closed, reach to within from one inch, to quite, the end of 

 tail ; in weight they vary from 1 lb. 5 ozs. to 2 lbs. 2 ozs. 



Legs and feet ; front of tarsus dark horny, in some greenish 

 horny ; scutse often irregularly marked with lighter horny ; 

 front of toes darker horny than tarsus, darkening still more 

 towards claws ; claws dark horny above, lighter horny beneath, 

 and tipped light horny ; soles pale carneous, sometimes pale 

 yellow • tibio-tarsal articulation, back and sides of tarsi, dull 

 brick or litharge red. Bill light greenish or yellowish horny, 

 yellower along edge of mandibles; lores and whole orbital 

 and aural region, and visible portions of the skin of the neck, 

 showing through between the sparse feathers, varying from a 



