AVIAX GENUS MEOAPODIUS IS THE PACIFIC. 753 



known, informs me that a sultan of the Maldive Islands, who 

 died in 1878, introduced Meprapodes into an islet covered with 

 cocoanuts and scrub, forming part of the great atoll of Male in 

 that Archipelago. Where these were obtained is not known, but 

 Professor Gardiner thinks it probable that they were imported 

 from the Nicobar Islands, between which group and the Maldives 

 there is regular trade communication. 



We have thus from four widely separated localities definite 

 evidence of the more or less complete domestication of Megapodes 

 by the natives. Finally Guillemard *, referring to Wallace's view 

 that the Nicobar Island bird was introduced, says " that this is 

 not impossible must be evident to every traveller in the Malay 

 Archipelago, for birds of tliis genus are often seen in captivity." 



With regard to the powers of flight of Megapodes, they are 

 compared by some authors with those of }>arn-door poultry. 

 Oustalet, however, recalls the fact t that a young specimen of 

 ill. freycineM flew on board ' La Coquille,' with a favouring breeze, 

 when that vessel was " plus de deux milles " (over two miles) 

 from land. 



Le tSouef j mentions that M. duperreyi^ although the birds are 

 " very poor fliers," occurs on the scrub-covered islands "a good 

 many miles " from the N.E. coast of Queensland. He surmises 

 that they may have been blown out during cyclones. 



Finsch § speaks of M. senex, the species inliabiting the Pelew 

 Islands, as occurring on nearly all the sandy and rocky islands of 

 the group. Some of these are separated by intervals of some 

 three or four miles. He considers that the bird, " which is a good 

 flier " (the term is of course used in a relative sense), may oc- 

 casionally fly from one island to the other. He also mentions 

 that the eggs are systematically taken by the natives. 



But when all allowance is made for their powers of flight, it 

 would seem an extravagant suggestion, and one which I think 

 has never been made, that Megapodes could by this means have 

 reached the outlying islands in which they are now found. The 

 Pelew Islands are separated by nearly five hundred miles from the 

 Philippines, the nearest land to the west, and by a rather greater 

 distance from Xew Guinea to the south. The Marianne Islands 

 are some 600 miles to the E.N.E. of the Pelew Islands. Niuafou 

 is nearly 1000 miles to the east of the New Hebrides, the nearest 

 islands to it on which a species of Megapode exists. 



We may now examine the geological nature and some other 

 conditions of these outlying islands in the Pacific on which Mega- 

 podes are found, as well as the characters of the species living 

 on them. 



The island of Niuafou, or New Hope Island, although politi- 

 cally part of the Tonga group, is situated almost halfway between 



* Cruise of the Marchesa, vol. ii. p. 122 (footnote), 1886. 

 t L. c. vol. xi. p. 69. . 

 I Ibis, 1899, p. 16. 



§ "Die V^ogel der Palau-Gruppe." Journal des Museum GodefTroy, Heft viii. 

 Bd. iii.) 1875, p. 30 (p. 162 of tlie volume). 



