BY T. THOMSON FLYNN, B.Sc. 177 



PART I.— PTERYLOSIS. 



The feather arrangement of the group seems, singu- 

 larly enough, to have been almost neglected, the only 

 papers available to me on the subject being those of 

 Nitszch (Proc. Ray Soc, 1867), containing a brief ac- 

 count of the pterylosis of " Mcga.podius rubripes " ; 

 Garrod (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1878, pp. 629-631) on the 

 anatomy of " Megacephalon maleo," and Pycraft (Wil- 

 ley's Zool. Res., Pt. IV., 1900, pp. 483-491) being " A 

 Contribution towards our Knowledge of the Pterylo- 

 graphy of the ' Megapodii ' "). 



In his remarks on the pterylosis of " Megapodius 

 rubripes," Nitzsch stated that it was typically gallin- 

 aceous in character, and that the oil gland was tufted. 

 Garrod, however, found that in " Megacephalon maleo " 

 the oil gland was nude, and that the rest of the feather 

 arrangement differed in some respects from the typical 

 galline character. Pycraft deals in an extended manner 

 with the pterylography of " Megapodius pritchardi " and 

 of a nestling of " Megapodius eremita." In his paper 

 he raises a number of points of interest. Unfortunately, 

 this paper has only recently come into my hands, and 

 since the plumage of my 12 days' old chick of " M. 

 eremita " is worthy of detailed study in connection with 

 several points emphasised by Pycraft, I have decided to 

 withhold all remarks upon it till later. 



In " Catheturus lathami " the head is almost bare, 

 the feathers of this region being scanty, reduced, and 

 bristle-like. In the supra-orbital region, however, and 

 anterior to this region, the feathers are slightly longer, 

 being about half an inch in length. The anterior part 

 of the neck is occupied by the large " wattle," which is 

 sparsely covered by a number of bristle-like feathers, 

 which, on the posterior side, take more the character of 

 contour feathers. 



" Lipoa " differs greatly from " Catheturus " in this 

 region. The head is comparatively thickly covered with 

 well developed feathers, which are raised above into a 

 distinct crest. Anterior to the eyes, and extending back- 

 wards below and behind them to surround the auditory 



