THE MEGAPODIUS DUPERREYI. 
209 
Mr. Macgillivray says the Megapodii are very numerous 
in the Louisiade Archipelago^ running about the thickets^ 
and calling to each other like pheasants in a preserve at 
home""^/^ The sailors on board the Rattlesnake prized the 
eggs of these birds very much as food. 
The Megapodius Duperreyi is found in the various islands 
of the Louisiade Archipelago. There Mr. Macgillivrayt 
met with the enormous mounds which it prepares for its 
eggs. These mounds averaged five feet in height and fif- 
teen in diameter^ and were formed of the sandy soil of the 
neighbourhood^ scratched up and mixed with rotten sticks 
and leaves. He describes the constructor of this immense 
fabric as being at times very pugnacious^ as he frequently 
saw them chasing each other along the ground^ running 
swiftly, and uttering their cry more loudly than usual. He 
describes the cry as consisting of one or two shrill notes, 
uttered at intervals, and ending in a hurried tremulous cry 
repeated five or six times. The noise made by this Mega- 
podius while scratching among the dead leaves for food, 
may sometimes be imitated with such success as to bring 
the bird running up within gunshot." Mr. Macgillivray 
found that this species procured its food entirely on the 
* Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, vol. i. p. 244. f Ji^d. vol. ii. p. 64. 
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