4 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



between 381 and 400 mm., and the females between 374*5 and 

 409*5 mm., and the weight of females from 30 to 36 oz. 



Colours of the soft parts. — " Legs and feet ; front of tarsus dark 

 horny, in some greenish horny, scutse often irregularly marked with 

 lighter horny, front of toes darker, 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. BiU light greenish or 

 yellowish horny, yellower along the 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 light, 

 somewhat cherry red to a bright brick red ; irides light brown or hazel 

 brown." (Hume.) 

 Richmond gives the colours of the soft parts as follows : — 



" Eyelids red ; sides of head vermilion ; skin of throat pale mauve 



pink ; iris clear brown ; bill greenish horn ; legs dull reddish, brown in 



front ; soles dull ochraceous, claws black." (Proceedings, Nat. Mus. 



U. S. A., Vol. XXV., p. 311.) 



Birds not quite adult have the head and neck completely clothed 



in feathers, those on the chin and foreneck being greyish white. It 



seems also that in such birds the under parts are always brown or 



rufous brown with no tinge of grey. 



" The quite young bird, when rather less in size than a quail, is a 

 uniform snuff brown aU over, everywhere densely feathered, even about 

 the throat and neck, and with the feathers of the forehead and back of 

 the head much longer, actually and not merely relatively, than in the 

 adult, no bare space in front of or around the eye, no tail developed, only 

 a large bunch of fur-like feathers, but the wings large, strong, and well- 

 formed ; the bill very short. One such bird measured 5*5 in length, had 

 a wing of 4", tarsus 1-1 ; and bill at front 0-3." (Hume, Str. Feath.) 

 Distribution. — The Nicobars, where they have been found on ever}' 

 Island except Ohoura, and Car Nicobar. Butler has recorded them 

 as occurring on Baltye Malve, though Hume and Davison did not 

 find them there. Hume also saw traces of these mounds on Table 

 Island, one of the Andamans, and was told by the European Light- 

 house-Keeper that he had shot birds which he described as correspond- 

 ing exactly to Megapodes. Gates at a later date went over the same 

 Island together with Captain Shopland, and failed not only to find 

 any trace of the bird, but even of their mounds. Butler also found 

 no traces of birds or their mounds, though he worked this Island 

 very thoroughly. 



Nidification. — Davison is quoted by Hume in Stray Feathers, 

 etc., to the following effect : — 



'^ 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 dry 

 leaves, sticks, etc., mixed with earth, and were very small compared with 

 others near the sea coast, not being above 3 feet high, and 12 or 14 feet 

 in circumference ; those lauilt near the coast are composed chiefly of 

 sand, mixed with rubbish, and varied very much in size, but average 

 about 5 feet high and 30 feet in circumference, but I met with one 

 exceptionally large one on the Island of Trinkut, which must have been 



