418 CELEBES. [chap, xvi i . 



leaves, stones, and sticks into a huge mound, in which they 

 bury their eggs. The feet of the Maleo are not nearly so 

 large or strong in proportion as in these birds, while its 

 claws are short and straight instead of being long and 

 much curved. The toes are, however, strongly webbed at 

 the base, forming a broad powerful foot, which, with the 

 rather long leg, is well adapted to scratch away the loose 

 sand (which flies up in a perfect shower when the birds 

 are at work), but which could not without much labour 

 accumulate the heaps of miscellaneous rubbish, which 

 the large grasping feet of the Megapodius bring together 

 with ease. 



We may also, I think, see in the peculiar organization of 

 the entire family of the Megapodidse or Brush Turkeys, a 

 reason why they depart so widely from the usual habits of 

 the Class of birds. Each egg being so large as entirely to 

 fill up the abdominal cavity and with difficulty pass the 

 walls of the pelvis, a considerable interval is required 

 before the successive eggs can be matured (the natives say 

 about thirteen days). Each bird lays six or eight eggs or 

 even more each season, so that between the first and last 

 there may be an interval of two or three months. Now, if 

 these eggs were hatched in the ordinary way, either the 

 parents must keep sitting continually for this long period, 

 or if they only began to sit after the last egg was deposited, 

 the first would be exposed to injury by the climate, or to 



