278 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



Davison states : — u This bird occurs on all the islands of the 

 Nicobar group, and it appears to be most numerous on those 

 islands where the soil is somewhat sandy, and consequently the 

 undergrowth less dense, as on the Trinkut, Treis, &c. It is 

 found singly, in pairs, and in small parties, and I was informed 

 ■that one of the convicts employed in collecting cocoanuts on 

 the island of Trinkut one morning saw about 30 together. 

 I have a note that on the island of Bompoka I met with a party 

 of about six, and this is the largest number 1 have seen together. 

 Usually they go in pairs, and keep calling to each other in a 

 loud sort of cackling note which might be sylabalized by kiik-a- 

 kixk-kuk, repeated several times very quickly. 



" I have seen a great many mounds of this bird ; usually they 

 are placed close to the shore, but on Bompoka and on Katchall 

 I saw two mounds some distance inland in the forest; they 

 were composed of dried leaves, sticks, &c, mixed with earth, 

 and were very small compared with others near the sea coast 

 not being above three feet high and about twelve or fourteen 

 feet in circumference ; those built near the coast are com- 

 posed chiefly of sand, mixed with rubbish, and vary very much 

 in size, but average about five feet high and thirty feet in cir- 

 cumference, but I met with one exceptionally large one on the 

 island of Trinkut, which must have been at least eight feet 

 high, and quite sixty feet in circumference. It was apparently 

 a very old one, for from near its centre grew a tree about six 

 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. 

 u Off this mound I shot a megapod, 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 oviary 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 megapod's eggs, about a dozen eggs of some large 

 lizard. 



" I made careful enquiries 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 



