MEGAPODID.^, S3 



with their long strong claws. Their food principally consists 

 of seeds and insects. The eggs are of a fine dark cream- 

 colour and of a very large size, three of them weighing nearly 

 as much as a full-grown bird. According to the account given. 

 by the Malays, each bird lays about eight or ten eggs at each 

 time of breeding, and their nests are merely large heaps of 

 shells and rubbish, deposited over the sandy soil, in which 

 the eggs are buried to the depth of about eighteen inches. 

 Since receiving this account, however, we have had an oppor- 

 tunity of inspecting a very large and perfect nest, or breeding- 

 hill, and found it to be about twenty feet in diameter, and 

 composed of sand, earth, and sticks ; it was close to the 

 beach, just within the jungle, and scarcely above high- water 

 mark, and appeared to have been used for many years. The 

 boatmen seemed to have no clue to what part of the hillock 

 contained eggs, but said that they were never without some, 

 when frequented at all ; they sought for nearly half an hour 

 in vain before they found one, and then they got about a 

 dozen together ; they were buried at a depth of from one to 

 three feet in an upright position, and the ground about them 

 was astonishingly hard. The eggs thus deposited are left to 

 be hatched by the heat of the sun, and this, the Malays as- 

 sert, requires between three and four months to complete : 

 those obtained from this heap were brought home and buried 

 in a box of sand, and a month or two afterwards it was dis- 

 covered that they had all hatched, but that from neglecting 

 to place them in a proper {i.e. probably an upright) position, 

 the chicks could not get up through the sand, and had all 

 perished. When hatched, the chicks are almost entirely 

 fledged ; even the long quills being, as the Malays say, 

 " needled." When first dug out, some of the eggs had lost 

 much of their outer colour, which appeared to have scaled oif, 

 leaving only a white chalky shell. On a former occasion 

 some eggs were brought by the natives, and were buried in a 

 box of sand and exposed to the weather : at the end of about 

 three weeks one of the chicks was hatched; a Malay who 

 saw it emerge, said, that it just shook off the sand and ran 

 away so fast that it was with difficulty caught ; it then ap- 

 peared to be nearly half-grown, and from the first fed itself 



D 



