Ixxii 
INTRODUCTION. 
Inhabits the neighbourhood of Port Essington, is much smaller than G. tranquilla, but in colour and marking 
is precisely similar to that species, 
437. Geopelia cuneata . . . . . . . . . . , , . , Vol. V. PI. 74. 
" All that we read or imagine of the softness and innocence of the dove," says Captain Sturt, " is realized in 
this beautiful and delicate bird ; it is common on the Murray and the Darling, and was met with in various parts of 
the interior. Two remained with us at the Depot in latitude 39° 40', longitude 142°, during a great part of the 
winter, and on one occasion roosted on the tent-ropes near the fire. Its note is exceedingly plaintive, similar to, 
but softer than, that of the turtle-dove of Europe." 
Genus Macropygia, Swains. 
A genus the members of which are distributed over India, Java, New Guinea, Ceram, the Moluccas, Australia, 
&c. Only one species, M. PTiasianella, has yet been found in the last-mentioned country, but others may be 
discovered when its eastern and northern parts have been more fully explored. 
438. Macropygia Phasianella Vol. V. PI. 75. 
The interior of the dense brushes are the favourite haunts of this bird, but it occasionally resorts to the crowns 
of the low hills and the open glades of the forest, where it searches for its food on the ground ; on being disturbed 
it fli€S to the branches of the nearest tree, spreading out its broad tail at the moment of alighting. 
Genus Didunculus, Peale. 
Since I drew and described this most anomalous form, under the name assigned to it by Sir William Jardine^ 
two important facts have been ascertained respecting it, viz. that it is identical with the bird described by Mr. 
Titian Peale of America under the name of Didunculus, and that the Samoan Islands and not Australia is its true 
habitat. 
Didunculus strigirostris. 
439. Gnathodon strigirostris, Jard. Vol. Y- PI- 76. 
Family MEGAPODID^E, G. R. Gray, 
The genera Talegalla, Leipoa and Megapodius form part of a great family of birds inhabiting Australia, New 
Guinea, Celebes, and the Philippine Islands, whose habits and economy are most singular and differ from those 
of every other group of birds which now exists upon the surface of our globe. In their structure they are most 
nearly allied to the Gallinacece, while in some of their actions and in their mode of flight they much resemble the 
RallidcB ; the small size of their brain, coupled with the extraordinary means employed for the incubation of their 
eggs, indicates an extremely low degree of organization. 
The three species of the family inhabiting Australia, although referable to three distinct genera, have many 
habits in common, particularly in their mode of nidification — each and all depositing their eggs in. mounds of earth 
and leaves, which, becoming heated either by the fermentation of the vegetable matter, or by the sun's rays, form 
a kind of natural hatching-apparatus, from which the young at length emerge fully feathered, and capable of 
sustaining life by their own unaided efi^orts. 
