nt patches of colour on the head and
the under-surface. Next to these come the kingfishers, including sixteen
species, almost all of which are beautiful, end many are among the most
brilliantly-coloured birds that exist.

One of the most curious groups of birds, the Megapodii, or mound-makers,
is very abundant in the Moluccas. They are gallinaceous birds, about the
size of a small fowl, and generally of a dark ashy or sooty colour,
and they have remarkably large and strong feet and long claws. They are
allied to the "Maleo" of Celebes, of which an account has already been
given, but they differ in habits, most of these birds frequenting the
scrubby jungles along the sea-shore, where the soil is sandy, and there
is a considerable quantity of debris, consisting of sticks, shells,
seaweed, leaves, &c. Of this rubbish the Megapodius forms immense
mounds, often six or eight feet high and twenty or thirty feet in
diameter, which they are enabled to do with comparative ease, by means
of their large feet, with which they can grasp and throw backwards a
quantity of material. In the centre of this mound, at a depth of two or
three feet, the eggs are deposited, and are hatched by the gentle heat
produced by the fermentation of the vegetable matter of the mound.
When I first saw these mounds in the island of Lombock, I could hardly
believe that they were made by such small birds, but I afterwards met
with them frequently, and have once or twice come upon the birds engaged
in making them. 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