ENGD ROD UC a O ING

lxxul

X Fs + Q C . c Y s =
Inhabits the neighbourhood of Port Essington, 1s much smaller than G. tranquilla, but in colour and marking

is precisely similar to that species.

437. Geopelia cuneata. : ' : : : : : : : : Vol. V. PL. 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°, durmg 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 Macropyata, Szais.

A genus the members of which are distributed over India, Java, New Guinea, Ceram, the Moluccas, Australia,
&c.= OnlyZone species, M. Phasianella, 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_ . : ; : : ; : ‘ : : , : : WO Wo IPL 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 flies to the branches of the nearest tree, spreading out its broad tail at the moment of alighting.

Genus Dipuncuuus, 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. Vo Bivic:

Family MEGAPODIDE, 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 Gallinacee, while in some of their actions and in their mode of flight they much resemble the
Rallide ; the small size of their brain, coupled with the extraordinary means employed for the incubation of their
egos, 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 efforts.