Megapodius nicobariensis, Blyth. 



Vernacular Names-— [Grouse, Peafowl, Pheasants ! (British barbarians) 

 Camorta.] 



HE Nicobar Megapode is only certainly known to 

 occur in the central and southern divisions of the group 

 of islands whence they derive their name. 



We saw and shot them on every single island except 

 the three northernmost — Chowra, Batty Malve, and 

 Car Nicobar. 



In no portion of the Andaman group have they yet 

 been traced, but at Table Island, at the north of the Great 

 Coco, there was some reason to think that they must have 

 occurred, though we could find none of them. In the first place 

 the lighthouse-keeper, a most intelligent European, described to 

 us brown hen-like birds with large legs and feet that he had 

 occasionally shot on the island. In the second place, we found 

 some little hillocks that might have been old mounds of this 

 species. 



It is not unlikely that this species extends to the various 

 small islets of the north-west end of Sumatra, but this remains to 

 be proved. 



The Megapode never wanders far from the sea-shore, and 

 throughout the day it keeps in thickish jungle, a hundred yards or 

 so above high water mark. It never, so far as I observed, emerg- 

 ed on to the open grass hills that form so conspicuous a feature 

 in so many of the Nicobars, but throughout the day hugged the 

 belt of more or less dense jungle that in most places, along the 

 whole coast line, supervenes abruptly on the white coral beach. 

 At dusk, during moonlight nights, and in the early dawn, 

 glimpses may be caught of them running about on the shore or 

 even at the very waters' edge, but during daylight they skulk in 

 the jungle. 



They are to be met with in pairs, coveys, and flocks of from 

 thirty to fifty. They run with great rapidity and rise unwillingly, 

 running and flying just like jungle hens. They often call to 

 each other, and when a party has been surprised and dispersed, 

 they keep on talking to each other incessantly, half a dozen 

 cackling at the same time. The note is not unlike the chuck- 



