26 ti CELEBES. [chap, xvii, 



completely fills an ordinary teacup, and forms with bread 

 or rice a very good meal. The colour of the shell is a pale 

 brick red, or very rarely pure white. They are elongate 

 and very slightly smaller at one end, from four to four 

 and a half inches long by two and a quarter or two and 

 a half wide. 



After the eggs are deposited in the sand they are no 

 fiuther cared for by the motlier. The young birds on 

 breaking the shell, work their way up through the sand 

 :ind run off at once to the forest ; and I was assured bv 

 Mr. Duivenboden of Ternate, tliat they can fly the very 

 day tliej are hatched. He had taken some egg's on boaril 

 his schooner which hatched during the night, and in the 

 uioniing the little birds fh^w readily across the cabin. 

 Considering the great distance.*^ tlie birds come to deposit 

 the eggs in a proper situation (olteii ten or fifteen miles) it 

 seems extraordinary that they should take no further care 

 of them. It is, however, quite certain that they neither do 

 nor can watch them. The eggs being deposited by a 

 nundjer of hens in succession in the same hole, would 

 render it inipossible for each to distinguish its own ; and 

 the food necessary for such large birds (consisting entirely 

 of fallen fruits) can only be obtained by roaming over an 

 extensive district, so that if the numbers of binls which 

 come down to this single beach in the breeding season, 

 amounting to many hundreds, were obliged to remain in 

 the vicinity, many would })erish of hunger. 



In tlie structure of tlie feet of this bird, we may detect 

 a cause for its departing from the habits of its nearest 

 allies, the Megapodii and Talegalli, which heap up earth, 

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

 liury their eggs. The feet of the ^Faleo are not nearly so 

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

 ' laws are shoii and straight instead of being long and 

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

 Lhe 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 ])erfect shower when the birds are 

 at work), but which could not without much labour accumu- 

 late the heaps of miscellaneous rubbish, which the large 

 grasping feet of the Megapodius bring together with ease. 



