Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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 further cared for by the mother. The
young birds on breaking the shell, work their way up through the sand and run off at once to
the forest; and I was assured by Mr. Duivenboden of Ternate, that they can fly the very day
they are hatched. He had taken some eggs on board his schooner which hatched during the
night, and in the morning the little birds flew readily across the cabin. Considering the great
distances the birds come to deposit the eggs in a proper situation (often 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 number of
hens in succession in the same hole, would render it impossible 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 birds which
come down to this single beach in the breeding season, amounting to many hundreds, were
obliged to remain in the vicinity, many would perish of hunger.
In the structure of the 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 bury their eggs. The feet of the Maleo are not
nearly so large or strong in proportion as in these birds, while its claws are short and straight
instead of being long and much curved. The toes are, however, strongly webbed at the 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 perfect shower when the birds are at work), but
which could not without much labour accumulate the heaps of miscellaneous rubbish, which
the large grasping feet of the Megapodius bring together with ease.
We may also, I think, see in the peculiar organization of the entire family of the Megapo-
didæ or Brush Turkeys, a reason why they depart so widely from the usual habits of the
Class of birds. Each egg being so large as entirely to fill up the abdominal cavity and with
difficulty pass the walls of the pelvis, a considerable interval is required before the success-
ive eggs can be matured (the natives say about thirteen days). Each bird lays six or eight
eggs or even more each season, so that between the first and last there may be an interval of
two or three months. Now, if these eggs were hatched in the ordinary way, either the parents
must keep sitting continually for this long period, or if they only began to sit after the last
egg was deposited, the first would be exposed to injury by the climate, or to destruction by
the large lizards, snakes, or other animals which abound in the district; because such large
