ATIAX GESVS HXGAPODIVS IX THE PACIFIC. I O* 



We ma J note that, tiie qiecies inhabitiiig the Xew Hebrides, 

 JT. layardi, bekm^ to the group erf species having ihe mantle 

 and upper parte blackish grey, not rufous brown as in 

 M. prUehardi. 



Thesre is one other fact which seems to point to the view 

 iAxat the Xiuafon bird is nofc indigieoous to that island, viz., that 

 the native name. Mallow, is the same as that applied to several 

 species <rf 'SLe^po^^ in the Malay Archipelago- This appears 

 in the specific name of Jfegacephalom mal^o of Celebes. Jfega- 

 podiim emmingi is called moleo kitjU (= little mcJeo) by the 

 natives of that island, in distinction, probably, &om the larger 

 Megacephfdon maleo*. M. layardi is the Mfdow of the natives of 

 the Xew Hebrides. (Justnlet says that this name appears to be 

 applied indiflGarenth^ to 3iegapodes by 3Ialay hunters. Its occur- 

 rence on Jfiuafou, far out in the Pacific among a population of 

 Polynesian speech, seems to su^;est strongly tiiat at some time 

 the name arrived at the island with the bird. 



With r^jard to the Marianne and Pelew Idands, I have less 

 evidence to bring forward, but it was in the former group that 

 Quoy and Gaimaid were bdd that ihe M^apode (J/, laperousit) 

 had been dome^icated. It is so closdy similar to 21. ^nex frran 

 the Pelew Islands that M, Oustalet has r^arded them as of the 

 same species t. 



The geological structure of the Pelew Islands is discussed by 

 Semper %. who shows that the islands are composed in part of 

 raised coral, in part of volcanic rock, formed during submarine 

 eruptions. H this is the case, there can be no remains on the 

 Pdew Islands of the fauna of a subsided land-ma^, suppc^ng 

 such a mass to have existed. 



From the description of the Jilarianne Islands in the account 

 of the Voyage of the Uranie, above quoted, it is stated (Hisfcorique, 

 T. 2, p. 253) that they seem to have been formed in the remote 

 past by submarine eruptions, which hare raised the flow of tiie 

 ocean, and that the re^s which have foioned about the islands as 

 they have risrai above the waves have since been raised with them. 

 So that it would appear that the same remark is applicable to 

 these as to the Pelew Lslands. 



J/, laperousii and M. senex have the upper parts blackish grey, as 

 have M.freydneii, from the Moluccas and Xew Guinea, J/, geel- 

 viiikianus from Xew Guinea and some adjacent islands, and 

 M. layardi from the Xew Hebrides. But they difier from these 

 and other species in the french-grey colour of the feathers of the 

 head. We must conclude therefore that this character has been 

 developed since their isolation, or else that the parent stock has 

 either not yet been discovered, or has become extinct. 



In the British Museum Catalogue three '■' doubtful species " 



* Mf'yer & WigkswOTth. Birds of Cdebes, voL iL 18^ p. 671. 



t Cf. <'->gilvie-(irant. Allen's Xataraliste' libraiy : Game Birds. toL iL p. Wi. 



X Tht Xatural Conditiims of Existenee a£ thejr aSsdt, Awimal Life, by Kail 

 Semper, Cbafter 8 : Inftanatioiial Sdentific Seii^ \oL xxxL JmbAob ISSS, ^pp. 2S4 

 &2»L 



