THE NICOBAR MEGAPODE. 1 23 



one before the bird had time even to bury it ; after being buried, 

 so long as the egg remains quite fresh, it continues a pale pink, 

 but as the chicken develops within, the egg becomes a buffy 

 stone colour, and when near about hatching, it is a very pale 

 yellowish brown. The whole colouring matter is contained in 

 an excessively thin chalky flake, which is easily scraped off, 

 leaving a pure white chalky shell below. This outer coloured 

 coat seems to have a great tendency to flake off in spots, specks, 

 and even large blotches, as the chicken is developed within. 

 Quite fresh-laid eggs rarely exhibit any white marks of any 

 kind, while those more or less approaching hatching (one can- 

 not say incubated in this case) are invariably more or less 

 mottled with white. Occasionally fairly fresh eggs are dug 

 out, bearing along their entire length on one side two parallel 

 white lines made apparently by the claws of the mother bird 

 when scraping the sand over them. The eggs are always a 

 little pointed towards one end, and some, especially the less 

 cylindrical ones, are conspicuously so. The shell is entirely 

 devoid of gloss, and the surface is everywhere roughened with 

 innumerable minute pores, which occur equally in the exterior 

 coloured flake and the white, somewhat less chalky, shell be- 

 neath. 



In length the eggs vary from 3*01 to 3*4, and in breadth 

 from 1 -9 to 2*25 ; but the average of sixty-two eggs that I have 

 carefully measured is 3*25 by 2*07. 



THE FOLLOWING is a. resume oi the dimensions of 15 speci- 

 mens measured in the flesh. The birds vary a good deal in size, 

 but this is probably due to age, and certainly not to sex, as some 

 of the largest and some of the smallest birds belonged to each 

 sex : — 



Length, 14*5 to 17 ; expanse, 28 to 32*5 ; wing, 8 to 9*5 ; 

 tail from vent, 275 to 3*5 ; tarsus, 2*6 to 275 ; bill from gape, 

 I "2 to 1*3 ; bill at front, 0*94 to ri ; wings, when closed, reach 

 from within one inch of, to quite the end of tail. In weight 

 they vary from I lb. 5 ozs. to 2 lbs. 2 ozs. 



Legs and feet ; front of tarsus dark horny, in some greenish 

 horny ; scutae often irregularly marked with lighter horny ; 

 front of toes darker horny than tarsus, darkening still more 

 towards claws ; claws dark horny above, lighter horny beneath, 

 and tipped light horny ; soles pale carneous, sometimes pale 

 yellow ; tibio-tarsal articulation, back and sides of tarsi, dull 

 brick or litharge red ; bill light greenish or yellowish horny, 

 yellower along edge of mandibles ; lores and whole orbital and 

 aural region, and visible portions of the skin of the neck, show- 

 ing through between the sparse feathers, varying from a light, 

 somewhat dull, cherry red to a bright brick red ; irides light 

 brown or hazel brown. 



