070 Birds of Celebes; Megapodidae. 



Game-birds are heavy of body, and their flight, though swift, appears to be 

 an exhausting exercise to them; it is inconceivable in some cases (e. g. G alius) 

 that they could fly across the 70 or more miles of the Macassar Strait, in other 

 cases it is unlikely that they could do so. That none of the heavy -flying 

 Phasianidae have succeeded in crossing is proof that Celebes has not been in 

 land-contact with Borneo since the Phasianidae made their appearance in the 

 latter country ; and, if Celebes was in touch with Borneo and the continent when 

 she received the Babirusa, the Anoa and the Baboon into her fauna, then this 

 invasion of the mammals took place at a date before Pheasants were in Borneo 



— perhaps before they had developed at all. On the other hand it is possible 

 that Pheasants once existed on Celebes and have become extinct. Should a 

 Pheasant still be discovered there — a thing which is hardly to be exjiected 



— it would probably belong to a very peculiar type, one that came in with the 

 Babirusa and Anoa and has shared a long period of isolation with them, during 

 which it will have undergone considerable modification of structure and plumage. 



FAMILY MEGAPODIDAE. 



The Megapodes belong to the Galline suborder Alectoropodes in virtue of 

 the hind toe being on a level Avith the other toes. They are the only birds 

 which have the habit of burying their eggs and leaving them to be hatched by the 

 heat of the sun, or of decaying vegetable - matter intermixed with the soil or 

 sand heaped up by the parents, or, as occasionally happens in the case of 

 Megacephalon , hot-springs are made to serve the same purpose. Where it has 

 been possible to make the observation, the young bird has been found to be 

 capable of flight on issuing from the egg. 



In size the Megapodes vary from that of a Partridge to that of a large 

 Fowl. The claws are large and but little curved, the hind toe is nearly as long 

 as the lateral toes. Wing moderately large, but blunt, the secondaries falling- 

 short of the tip of the wing by about '/s of its length. Sexes similar. The 

 family is Australasian, but extends also to the Philippines, as well the Marianne 

 and Pelew Islands, and Niuafou in Polynesia. 



GENUS MEGAPODIUS Q. G. 



Tail of 12 feathers, scarcely longer than the tarsus; tarsus anteriorly scutel- 

 lated, naked; claws very long; the middle toe but little longer than the lateral 

 ones; culmen shorter than the cranium, nostril oval, formed of a coriaceous 

 membrane. 



These birds generally, if not always, scrape together a mound of rubbish 

 — often of enormous size — in which to bury their eggs. They wear a plain 

 plumage of brown or grey, sometimes with most of head and neck bare. 



