Bii-ds of Celebes: Megapodidae. 581 



small size, and their much longer claws. The Moleo also has some remarkable 

 peculiarities in its breeding economy, about which much has been written by 

 AVallace (6, d 4), Rosenberg (2JJ, Meyer (22), Guillemard f2Pj, and lastly 

 by P. & F. Sarasin (37). 



Unlike the Mef^apodiun , the Megacephalon does not raise a heap of rubbish 

 in which to lay its eggs but sinks a pit in the sand which it afterwards tills 

 in, burying its egg to a depth of about 1 — 3 feet. One of its favourite breed- 

 ing grounds has been made known by Mr. Wallace in a spot on the north 

 coast between the islands of Lembeh and Banka. to which Dr. Guillemard and 

 his companions have given the name of Wallace Bay. Meyer has described 

 it as "a large irregular bay, with black sand . . . which did not consist of sand 

 in the common term, but of small stones up to the size of a bean into which 

 the foot sank up to the ankle". It seems to mark, as Mr. Wallace first ob- 

 served, an ancient lava-stream of the Klabat Volcano, which has flowed down 

 a valley into the sea, and become decomposed and triturated into loose black 

 sand. Mr. Wallace continues: "In the mass of loose sand thrown up above 

 high-water mark are seen numbers of holes four or five feet in diameter. In 

 and around these holes, at a depth of one or two feet, the eggs of the Moleos 

 are found. There are sometimes only one or two, sometimes as many as seven 

 or eight in one hole, but placed each at a distance of G — 8 inches from the 

 others". In the Bone valley Rosenberg noticed that the eggs stand on end 

 upright in the sand in which they are laid. According to Wallace a number 

 of females lay in the same hole, each egg being that of a different bird; but 

 whether he makes this statement from personal observation, or after the asser- 

 tions of the natives which are utterly unreliable), or from finding many fresh 

 eggs (many days appear to elapse between the deposit of the successive eggs) 

 in the same hole, we are not told; like Dr. Guillemard, Mr. Wallace watched 

 the birds at work in pairs, "choosing either a fresh place or an old hole", but 

 it appears still to need confirmation, whether other pairs make use of the same 

 hole. Owing to the continuous digging, the surface of the sand must needs 

 always be changing in appearance — Guillemard compares it "to nothing better 

 than the surface of a rough, confused sea" — and it is conceivable that it would 

 be impossible for a female to rediscover the spot where it laid its first egg. 



Although the Moleo is not known to take any further care for the egg or 

 its product after the former has been laid in an upright position and covered 

 in deeply with sand, this apparent lack of philoprogenitive affection so strongly 

 developed in most birds is counterbalanced by the extraordinary forethought 

 — if one may use the word — for the ultimate welfare of the young displayed 

 by the parent-birds in selecting the places where their eggs and offspring will 

 be left to their fate. The burying of the egg at a considerable depth answers 

 two purposes — protection from egg-eating animals ' , and the preservation 



' The eggs do not. liowever, always escape: Meyer shot a young crocodile :S feet in length iCrocndilui 

 biporcatus] busy digging for eggs in a Moleo-hole, and saw other crocodile-diggings. 



Meyer * Wi fjl es worth. Birds of Celebes (Nov.aitli, IMt7). 86 



