250 ON THE ZOOLOGY OF THE SOLOMON ISLANDS. [May 1, 



to lay their eggs ; so they asked the Shark to take the Megapodes 

 away. This was done ; but now the natives missed the Megapodes' 

 eggs, so they asked the Shark to bring the Megapodes back but to 

 confine them to one spot. This request was also complied with, and 

 the result may now be seen. The Megapodes lay their eggs on two 

 large cleared sandy spaces, and nowhere else on the island. Upon 

 these no weeds or grass can grow, as the sand is constantly being 

 turned over by the birds when digging holes to lay their eggs, and 

 by the natives when in search of them. The sandy spaces are fenced 

 off into plots which belong to different owners. 



I met with one of these Megapodes' laying-yards at Aola, on Gua- 

 dalcanar, and was fortunate enough to be able to photograph it. The 

 first photograph gives a general view of the yard, which was nearly 

 half a mile in length and about fifty yards wide, with the fences 

 dividing it off for different owners. The second photograph shows 

 a closer view of a portion of the yard, with the holes scraped in the 

 sand by the birds. All over the yard may be noticed the tracks of 

 the tails of the large Monitors, as though a stick had been drawn 

 along the sand. I expect they take a pretty severe toll of the eggs. 

 The eggs, which are buried from a foot to two feet in the warm 

 sand, receive no further care from the birds, but the young shift for 

 themselves from the time of hatching, and can fly at once, or very 

 soon after leaving the egg. The natives are quite indifferent as to 

 . the condition of the eggs when they eat them — whether they are 

 newly laid or well advanced towards hatching being all the same to 

 them. From experience I can say that they are excellent food. 



The laying-yards are always made where the soil is loose and sandy, 

 the birds require no other inducement. An open space being of 

 course essential to allow the rays of the sun to warm the ground, it 

 would evidently be quite useless for the birds to lay in the thick 

 forest, or under the shade of trees. It is easy to imagine that before 

 the natives constructed and cleared these laying-yards for the birds, 

 they would be likely to lay in the yam-patches and garden clearings, 

 and where they were plentiful would prove a serious inconvenience, 

 as alleged in the Savo legend. 



The birds do not build a mound, but, as will be seen from the 

 second photograph, make a hole from a foot to two feet deep. The 

 sand afterwards falls in and covers the egg. The ground is con- 

 sequently full of depressions, reminding one forcibly of the pitfalls 

 of the ant-lion on a large scale. 



Among the Butterflies this group of islands appears to be the 

 limit of range of the genus Ornithoptera, which, curiously enough, as 

 in the case of Cockatoos and Hornbills, does not extend to San 

 Christoval. Two species occur — the somewhat wide-ranging O. du- 

 villiana and the remarkable and local O. victorice. This latter is, so 

 far as I know, confined to the islands of Guadalcanar, Florida, and 

 part of Malay ta. 



