There Is Hardly Any
Difference Between The Sexes, Except That The Casque Or Bonnet At
The Back Of The Head
And the tubercles at the nostrils are a
little larger, and the beautiful rosy salmon colour a little
deeper in
The male bird; but the difference is so slight that it
is not always possible to tell a male from a female without
dissection. They run quickly, but when shot at or suddenly
disturbed, take wing with a heavy noisy flight to some neighbouring
tree, where they settle on a low branch; and, they probably roost
at night in a similar situation. Many birds lay in the same hole,
for a dozen eggs are often found together; and these are so large
that it is not possible for the body of the bird to contain more
than one fully-developed egg at the same time. In all the female
birds which I shot, none of the eggs besides the one large one
exceeded the size of peas, and there were only eight or nine of
these, which is probably the extreme number a bird can lay in one
season.
Every year the natives come for fifty miles round to obtain these
eggs, which are esteemed as a great delicacy, and when quite fresh,
are indeed delicious. They are richer than hens' eggs and of a
finer favour, and each one completely fills an ordinary teacup,
and 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, upon 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 Megapodidae 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 successive
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 birds
must roam about a good deal in search of food. Here then we seem
to have a case in which the habits of a bird may be directly
traced to its exceptional organization; for it will hardly be
maintained that this abnormal structure and peculiar food were
given to the Megapodidae in order that they might not exhibit
that parental affection, or possess those domestic instincts so
general in the Class of birds, and which so much excite our admiration.
It has generally been the custom of writers on Natural History
to take the habits and instincts of animals as fixed points, and
to consider their structure and organization, as specially adapted,
to be in accordance with these. This assumption is however an
arbitrary one, and has the bad effect of stifling inquiry into
the nature and causes of "instincts and habits," treating them as
directly due to a "first cause," and therefore, incomprehensible
to us. I believe that a careful consideration of the structure of
a species, and of the peculiar physical and organic conditions by
which it is surrounded, or has been surrounded in past ages, will
often, as in this case, throw much light on the origin of its
habits and instincts.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 99 of 112
Words from 100127 to 101146
of 114260
