AVIAN GENUS MEGAPODIUS IN THE PACIFIC. 751 



of the Nicobar Islands had probably been introduced by the Malays, 

 but Oustalet cannot regard this explanation as plausible, on the 

 ground that " we possess no positive proof of the domestication of 

 Megapodes by the Malays or the savage people inhabiting the 

 Oceanic Islands." 



My object in this paper is to point ovit the reasons which appear 

 to me to make it probable that the distribution of the genus 

 Megapodms has been, as Wallace suggested in the case of the 

 Nicobar bird, considerably modified by human agency ; and that 

 the species found in these outlying Pacific islands have been 

 carried there by man. 



Since Oustalet published his monograph the Megapodiidae have 

 been again reviewed by Ogilvie-Grant in his Catalogue of the Game 

 Birds in the British Museum*; and in 1901 Rothschild and 

 Hartert t gave their revision of a portion of the genus Megapodius. 



The determination of the limits of the species of this 

 genus is difiicult on account of the variation in size and colour 

 pi'esented by the birds inhabiting the same locality, and the fact 

 that the characters of those from difterent localities often merge 

 into one another. On comparing the results aiTived at by the 

 authors mentioned, we find that nineteen species were enumerated 

 by Oustalet. If we take from these M. wallacei, which has been 

 placed by Ogilvie-Grant in a sepaiate genus {Eulipoa), and M. 

 hi^enchleyi and M. brazieri, which had then been desci-ibed only 

 from eggs or young birds, there remain sixteen species. Five of 

 these are united in two species by Ogilvie-Grant, aiid seven which 

 inhabit the area dealt with by Rothschild and Hartert are allowed 

 by these authors only subspecific rank under two specific names. 

 On the other hand, the species M. macgillivrayi, which is united 

 by Oustalet with the widely extended M. duperreyi^ and regarded 

 as only a subspecies by Rothschild and Hartert, is reckoned a 

 distinct species by Ogilvie-Grant. 



The peculiar nesting habits of the Megapodiidse are well known. 

 Most of the species scrape together large mounds of earth or sand, 

 with or without vegetable matter, and the female deposits her 

 eggs, which are very large for the size of the bird, at intervals of 

 several days, in excavations in these mounds. Incubation is 

 eflfected by the heat of the slowly fermenting mass, aided by that 

 of the sun, or by the sun alone ; and the young are hatched in an 

 advanced state of plumage. They receive no attention from their 

 parents, and in some cases at least they are able to fly on the day 

 on which they are hatched. In some species many pairs of birds 

 freqvient the same mounds or laying-grounds. 



In almost all the countries where Megapodes occur, their large 

 eggs are highly valued by the natives as food, and their laying- 

 places are frequently visited for the purpose of obtaining them. 



* Catalogue, Vol. xxii. 1893. Also ' Game Birds ' : Allen's Naturalists' Library, 

 London, 1895-7. 



t " Notes on Papuan Birds." Novitates Zoologicse, vol. viii. p. 135, 1901. 



52* 



