43$ 
GAME-BIRDS. 
suited for scratching up the earth and preparing their nesting-mounds. The true 
megapodes include fifteen different species, widely scattered over the islands of the 
Pacific and Australia, one (Megapodius cumingi) ranging to the Philippines, 
another ( M . laperousii) being found in the Ladrone and Pelew Islands, while an 
isolated western form occurs in the Nicobars. The plumage is remarkably sombre, 
being generally olive-brown or rufous above and grey beneath. The Nicobar 
megapode {M. nicobariensis ) during the day frequents the dense jungle near 
the coast, and may be met with in pairs or in flocks of thirty or more. It 
is a difficult bird to flush, usually preferring to escape by running. The nest¬ 
ing-mounds are generally placed near the shore, and average about 5 feet in height 
and 30 in circumference. Davison met with one “ which must have been at 
least 8 feet high and quite 60 feet in circumference. It was apparently a very 
old one, for from near its centre grew a tree about 6 inches in diameter, whose 
roots penetrated the mound in all directions to within a foot of its summit, 
some of them being nearly as thick as a man’s wrist. I had this mound dug away 
almost to the level of the surrounding land, but only got three eggs from it, one 
quite fresh, and two in which the chicks were somewhat developed. Off this 
mound I shot a megapode, which had evidently only just laid an egg. I 
dissected it, and from a careful examination it would seem that the eggs are laid 
at long intervals apart, for the largest egg in the ovary was only about the size 
of a large pea, and the next in size about as big as a small pea. These mounds 
are also used by reptiles, for out of one I dug, besides the megapode’s eggs, about 
a dozen eggs of some large lizard. I made inquiries among the natives about 
these birds, and from them I learnt that they usually get four or five eggs from 
a mound, but sometimes they get as many as ten; they all assert that only one 
pair of birds are concerned in the making of a mound, and that they only work 
at night. When newly made, the mounds (so I was informed) are small, but are 
gradually enlarged by the birds.” 
An exceptionally marked species, Wallace’s megapode (Eulipoa Wallace!), from 
Gilolo and some of the islands to the west of New Guinea, is characterised by 
having the secondary flight-feathers much shorter than the primaries, and the 
feathers of the middle of the back and most of the wing-coverts barred with bright 
chestnut. Still larger is the ocellated megapode ( Lipoa ocellata ) of Southern and 
Western Australia, distinguished by having the upper tail-coverts reaching to the 
end of the tail, and the plumage of the upper-parts mostly grey barred with black. 
Brush Turkeys The brush-turkeys ( Talegallus ) include three or four species of 
large, dark-coloured birds, with stout bills, oval nostrils, and the head, 
throat, and front of the neck thinly covered with small scattered feathers; the 
genus being confined to New Guinea and some of the adjacent islands. The 
Australian brush-turkey (GuiAeiuriisZci^am'i), shown in the woodcut, differs in having 
a large wattle at the base of the neck, the nostrils round, and the tail much longer. 
In both sexes the general colour of the upper-parts is dark brownish black, paler 
on the lower back and rump, the under-parts being dark brownish grey, broadly 
edged with white, the naked skin of the head and neck pinky red, and the wattle 
bright yellow. Gould observes that “ at the commencement of spring the wattled 
talegallus scratches together an immense heap of decaying vegetable matter as a 
