They Run A Few Steps Backwards, Grasping A Quantity Of
Loose Material In One Foot, And Throw It A Long
Way behind them.
When once properly buried the eggs seem to be no more cared for,
the young birds working
Their way up through the heap of rubbish,
and running off at once into the forest. They come out of the egg
covered with thick downy feathers, and have no tail, although the
wings are full developed.
I was so fortunate as to discover a new species (Megapodius
wallacei), which inhibits Gilolo, Ternate, and Bouru. It is the
handsomest bird of the genus, being richly banded with reddish
brown on the back and wings; and it differs from the other
species in its habits. It frequents the forests of the interior,
and comes down to the sea-beach to deposit its eggs, but instead
of making a mound, or scratching a hole to receive them, it
burrows into the sand to the depth of about three feet obliquely
downwards, and deposits its eggs at the bottom. It then loosely
covers up the mouth of the hole, and is said by the natives to
obliterate and disguise its own footmarks leading to and from the
hole, by making many other tracks and scratches in the
neighbourhood. It lays its eggs only at night, and at Bouru a
bird was caught early one morning as it was coming out of its
hole, in which several eggs were found. All these birds seem to
be semi-nocturnal, for their loud wailing cries may be constantly
heard late into the night and long before daybreak in the
morning.
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