The MALEO (_Megacephalon Maleo_) is characterised by a hard, round
excrescence that commences at the nostrils and passes over the brow to
the back of the head. The powerful beak is ridged at its culmen, and has
the margin of the lower mandible almost straight; the third quill in the
shell-shaped wing is longer than the rest; the rounded tail is composed
of eighteen feathers, and the strong foot furnished with short toes. The
plumage on the back, a band on the breast, and the region of the vent
and thighs are blackish brown, and the breast and belly pale rose-red.
The eye is yellow, the bare part of the head whitish blue, the occipital
protuberance blue; the beak and the fore part of the foot are horn-grey.
This species is twenty-four inches long; the wing measures eleven and the
tail eight inches.
"In the months of August and September," says Wallace, "when there is
little or no rain, the Maleos come down in pairs from the interior to one
or two favourite spots, and scratch holes three or four feet deep, just
above high-water mark, where the female deposits a single large egg, which
she covers with about a foot of sand, and then returns to the forest. At
the end of ten or twelve days she comes again to the same spot to lay
another egg, and each female bird is supposed to lay six or eight eggs
during the season. The male assists the female in making the hole, coming
down and returning with her. The appearance of these birds when walking
on the beach is very handsome. The glossy black and rosy white of the
plumage, the helmeted head, and elevated tail, like that of the Common
Fowl, give a striking character, which their stately and somewhat sedate
walk renders still more remarkable. 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, while the beautiful
rosy salmon-colour is perhaps 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; they probably roost at night in a
similar situation. Many females 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," continues this author,
"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 possibly the extreme
number a bird can lay in the season.
"Arrived at our destination, we built a hut, and prepared for a stay of
some days, I to shoot and skin Maleos. The place is situated in the large
bay between the islands of Limbé and Banca, and consists of a steep beach
more than a mile in length, of deep, loose, and coarse black volcanic
sand, or rather gravel, very fatiguing to walk over. It is in this loose
black sand that those singular birds, the Maleos, deposit their eggs.
"Every year the natives come for fifty miles round to obtain these eggs,
which are esteemed a great delicacy, and when quite fresh are indeed
delicious. They are richer than Hens' eggs, and of a finer flavour, each
one completely fills an ordinary tea-cup, 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 and
two and a half wide."
[Illustration: THE MALEO (_Megacephalon Maleo_), ONE-FOURTH NATURAL SIZE.]
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. "I was assured by
Mr. Duivenfoden, of Ternate," says Wallace, "that they can fly the very
day they are hatched. He had taken some eggs on board his schooner which
were hatched during the night, and in the morning the little birds flew
readily across the cabin. Considering the great distances the hens 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 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 _Tallegalli_, which heap up earth, leaves, stones, and
sticks into a large mound, wherein 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 curved.
The toes are, however, strongly webbed at the base, forming a broad
powerful foot, this, 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 they could not, without much labour, accumulate the heaps of
miscellaneous rubbish brought together by the large grasping feet of the
Megapodius.