CH. V FAUNA OF TALIS SE 95 



Mr. Cursham in the neighbouring island, Tindela. It is of 

 a fairly uniform brownish-black colour, with black legs and 

 claws. It is devoid of the handsome red crest which dis- 

 tinguishes the other maleo {^lefjacephalon maleo). I can- 

 not understand why Dr. Meyer insists so strongly that 

 the natives caU these birds ' Moleo ' and not ' Maleo.' It 

 is always a matter of some difficulty to arrive at the correct 

 vowel to use iu spelling native words, for HHterate persons 

 do not recognise such sharp distraction between vowels as 

 those who are accustomed to constant reading and writing ; 

 but it would be impossible for anyone to distinguish the 

 vowel used in the first syllable of the word ' maleo ' and 

 that in the word ' Malay,' and I am inclined to think that 

 the sound employed by the majority of the natives is more 

 correctly expressed by the letter ' a ' than the letter ' o.' 



The bird lays its eggs in the forest, under a heap of 

 decaying leaves, and takes no further care of them. It is 

 possible that the heat generated by the fermentation of 

 the leaves is sufficient to hatch them, as is the case with 

 the eggs of the Austrahan Megapode, which has a similar 

 habit. 



Mr. KeUing told me that in Tagulandang a small maleo 

 digs holes in the sand, and leaves its eggs in them to hatch ; 

 while a larger maleo, called there by the natives ' Mamunga,' 

 lays its eggs in the holes made by the smaller bird. The 

 larger bird is perhaps the Megapodius sanghirensis of 

 Schlegel, a brush-turkey, which is bigger than the Mega- 

 cephalon, and extends over the Sangir islands (69). 



The great birds of prey mentioned at the beginning of 

 this section are not the only birds which take advantage of 

 the splendid fishing grounds of the lagoon. The common 

 sandpiper {Tringoides hypoleucus) is always present upon 

 the sands and the roots of the mangrove trees as the 

 tide is ebbing, and more rarely that handsome whimbrel, 



