(jg4 Birds of Celebes: Megapodidae. 



Dr. Guillemard takes a different view of the matter: the bird biuies its 

 eggs in the sand, often to a depth of three feet or more, in order that they 

 may be safe from the attacks of depredators, and no chick of ordinary size could 

 work its way to the surface; hence he concUides that "the strength and enor- 

 mous size of the egg are adapted to the peculiar nesting habits of the species, 

 rather than that the unusual nidification is due to an aberrant reproductive 

 organisation". 



But it is not merely with extra size and strength in the chick that the 

 unusually large egg of the Megapodes is associated; the great length of the egg, 

 as compared with its width, is certainly necessary to the development of the 

 flight-feathers of the chick, which, in the case of some Megapodes, is able to fly 

 the very day it is hatched. This is the case in the Moleo, as Mr. Wallace 

 was assured by Mr. Duivenbode of Ternate. The latter "had taken some eggs 

 on board his schooner, which hatched during the night, and in the morning the 

 little birds flew readily across the cabin". 



The following explanation of the origin of the breeding economy of the 

 Moleo is almost the same as that of Dr. Guillemard. "Once upon a time" the 

 Megapodes laid ordinary-sized eggs and hatched them like other GalUnaceac 

 Like many other birds, they covered them up to conceal them from foes when 

 obliged to go away to feed. Those birds — they had not then the characters 

 of Megapodes — which nested on the sunny sea-strand always found their eggs 

 hot on their return; they ventured to take longer and longer absences in search 

 of food, and, at last, like the male Ostrich, they returned to them only during 

 the cool night, while some which had covered up their eggs more deeply, find- 

 ing they kept their heat , gradually abandoned this nightly visitation also. 

 Moreover, brooding on the eggs was discouraged by frequent scares from prowl- 

 ing mammals and reptiles, which, frightening the parent-bird away, devoured 

 the exposed contents of the nest ; often, too, the sitting bird was pounced upon, 

 and the habit of sitting was gradually abandoned as a failure. Meanwhile, the 

 eggs, buried deeply enough to keep warm, produced chickens, some of which, 

 unable to work their way to the surface, found their cradle and grave in one; 

 many others, emerging on to the strand without a mother near to protect and 

 teach them, were easily caught and destroyed by innumerable foes; only such 

 as were stronger, shyer, more active, and more fortunate escaped. The process 

 of natural selection increased in severity as time went on, for the enemies of 

 the Megapode, outwitted at first, learnt more of its novel breeding habits; the 

 eggs, therefore, required more careful burying, and the young needed to be more 

 active and quick-witted to escape; with the result that in the typical Megapodes 

 the eggs are at this day buried in huge artificial heaps of rubbish collected by 

 the parents and often covered over very deeply and — for a searcher — 

 awkwardly (we read of G feet, 5 feet, 6 feet — found "after several hours' hard 

 digging" — in Gould, and it would be easy to multiply instances), while the Moleo 



